Friday, May 21, 2010

May's Featured Bee

The month of May in my North American Native Bee Calendar purchased from the Great Sunflower Project, features the Green Bee - Ultra Green Sweat Bee to be exact, genus Agapostemon. They emerge in early spring through summer and nest in the ground.

Green bees are small and slender. Females are entirely bright green. The males have a bright green thorax and yellow and black striped abdomen. They mate in late summer, early fall and the pregnant females hibernate over the winter. They then begin a new nest in spring for their young.

You might spot a green bee in your garden if you grow the following: grindelia (gumweed), erigeron (fleabane), coreopsis (tickseed), and cosmos.

I spotted this green bee in my Maine garden where I did have many cosmos and coreopsis, although he is perched on a cone flower. I did spy one last summer in my garden here but of course, did not have my camera. They are so striking and hard to miss. I hope to see more this year.

 An update on my mason bee house. You can see the holes are filling up and plugged with mud.

4 comments:

  1. Fabulous idea! I'll have to post a few shots of my solitary bee houses. I have 3. There are over 400 bees in Texas and the only one that gets star-time is the European HoneyBee. Phooey, I like the soldier beer...he's my fav. Great post, I look forward to learning more throughout the year!

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  2. Beautiful picture of the coneflower and the green bee! I've never seen a green bee. I'm not sure we have them here. I will definitely be looking at bees more closely now. Looks like your bee house is a success!

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  3. It's wonderful to hear both of you are interested in bees and are aware of more than the honey bee! I would love to see your solitary bee houses conscious gardener! That sounds really cool. Over 400 bees - wow! I'll have to look up that soldier bee (beer - freudian slip? a cold one is sure good on a big landscaping/gardening day).

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  4. Glad to see this bee ID...I just noticed one of these metallic green & striped bees the other day and wasn't sure what it was. I thought it was some kind of bumble bee but now I know it was a male green sweat bee! It was visiting the flowers of Virginia Rose (which is a very popular hangout spot for pollinators of all shapes and sizes at the moment!!)

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Thank you for joining me in my garden in the making!

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