#【 Apidae 】

[razehider]

this nomad bee seemed to have some weird stylish shoulderpads that really confused me for a second before i realized they were leg stumps. you were the first nomad i saw this year, you must've pupated like a few days before this photo at most. how the hell did you lose your arms

(April 6th, 2025)

[herpsandbirds]

Blue Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa caerulea), family Fraser's Hill, Malaysia

photographs by Nick Volpe

[cnestus]

BEEBALL

source

[miyrumiyru]

Fluffy bumble bee with butterfly bush

Buff-tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus terrestris)

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

How about Xylocopa violacea (violet carpenter bee)?

Of course!

Photos thanks to the John Russel Honey Company & Steven Falk.

[uncharismatic-fauna]

Uncharismatic Fact of the Day

Want to see a mouse fly? Just head down to chile! The native moscardón bee is sometimes referred to as a flying mouse due to its incredibly large size. Mature queens can reach up to 4 cm (1.6 in) in length and weigh up to 1.5 grams (0.05 oz), making them one of the largest species of bee in the world.

Image: A moscardón bee (Bombus dahlbomii) by Gabriela Germain Fonck)

[creatureimages]

ridiculously handsome fellow

[snototter]

A Dimorphic Mountain-digger Bee (Habropoda tristissima) perches on a flower in Santa Clarita County, California, USA

by Robin Gwen Agarwal

[bowelfly]

"I love what you did with your hair"

artfight revenge for @hissydyke with @arthroart as collateral damage. thought it'd be fun to draw both of the colorful bee ladies on my 2024 hit-list together.

[pisaura-autistica]

hi. long time no bug. check out this girl (eucera?) unable to fly good because shes cold. let her warm up in the sun for a bit and she flew off

[anime-insect-of-the-day]

Today's anime insect of the day is: A bee from Demon Slayer

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Apidae

[razehider]

carpenter bees can be such a pain in the ass to get close to that finding one that's dying, dead or just plain sleepy is always a big event. this male Xylocopa violacea was very feisty, but he wasn't using his wings at all so i got a nice look at all their fancy colors that are usually not visible when they're furiously beating to keep a large loud cylinder afloat in the air

(February 6th, 2025)

[herpsandbirds]

Do you have any cool facts about the Blue Banded Bees?

Blue-banded Bees:

BBBs are a few species in the genus Amegilla, which are also known as the "digger bees". As the name would suggest, they dig burrows into the ground, where they lay their eggs. The live in Australia, South and SE Asia, and parts of Oceania.

They often engages in buzz pollination.

Australian Banded-Digger (Amegilla cingulata), family Apidae, QLD, Australia

photograph by Jane C. Frost

Northern Blue-banded Bee (Amegilla walkeri), family Apidae, NW Australia

Photograph by Nick Volpe

[cnestus]

everyone please admire this genital dissection i did today while trying to identify this male longhorn bee. i avoided doing these for the longest time but it really is the only way to reliably ID a huge chunk of bee species. i spent like an hour trying to key this guy out using external morphological features but it only took about 10 seconds once i yanked his crazy little hog out and compared it against the big chart of bee dicks. he's a Eucera amsinckiae.

[miyrumiyru]

Exoskeleton weared cloak-and-dagger bee 🩻

[have-you-seen-this-animal]

Oh, I was specifically thinking of the eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa virginica). Forgot to specify lol.

No worries!