Bee Families

The United States is home to 4000 different kinds of native bees. From cold, icy Canada to hot, sunny Mexico, you can find bees belonging to the five most common families: Apidae, Halictidae, Andrenidae, Megachilidae, and Colletidae. You can find them in forests, deserts, backyards, and even the National Mall in the middle of our nation’s capital. Up in the highlands, you could find a solitary beehive. For bees, there are seven distinct families. All families have a common evolutionary past and a unique collection of characteristics. As a further subdivision, these seven families include 28 subfamilies. Each subfamily’s distinctive and fascinating anatomical and biological characteristics are present. Even the Arctic bumblebee, a little but tenacious insect, makes its home in the Arctic. The fledgling queen starts caring for her first brood in the persistent frost. Occasionally, she will protect and warm her young by pressing her flying muscles on her brood cells and vibrating them for hours. Also, like other birds, she has a brood patch—a naked area on her belly—that she uses to warm her young. Larvae grow more quickly due to this exercise and the heat it generates, which warms the waxen brood cells. Some insects, like bumblebees, have a similar internal temperature to that of mammals. Rapid flexing of their flying muscles may turn them into energy powerhouses.