Ground living bee found in Cook county. Name? - Ask Extension
Smaller than honey bee & some reddish yellow coloring. Little pillars of dried mud around individual holes in ground. What kind of bee? Found...
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Ground living bee found in Cook county. Name? #873783
Asked June 19, 2024, 1:30 PM EDT
Smaller than honey bee & some reddish yellow coloring. Little pillars of dried mud around individual holes in ground. What kind of bee? Found in Crook Co rural area. Of OR
Crook County Oregon
Expert Response
Hi Don,
Because there are so many ground-nesting bee species (about 70% of bee species are ground-nesters), I cannot ID the bees you are seeing without looking at a specimen. The little pillars of dried mud around the nest entrances narrow down the options a bit, but not enough to provide an ID.
Here is info from a scientific article called Nesting Habitat of Ground-nesting Bees: A Review:
"Multiple bee species build turrets, or “chimneys”, at their nest entrances. Typically, turrets rise vertically from the nest entrance, although they are sometimes curved or horizontal, as in Anthophora sp. (Batra & Norden, 1996), Diadasina distincta (Martins & Antonini, 1994) and Halictus confusus Smith (Sakagami & Michener, 1962). The turrets have consolidated and cemented inner walls, constructed from soil mixed with glandular secretions (Ordway, 1984; Neff & Simpson, 1992; Wcislo et al., 1993). The function of these turrets is unclear, but they may prevent soil particles or water from falling into the open entrance; they could help females locate their nest or recognise it among others in an aggregation; or they could keep parasites and predators, such as ants, from entering the nest."
If you want a better idea of what kind of bees you are looking at you could collect 2 or 3 specimens and send them to us at the OSU Plant Clinic. If you'd like to do that, here is a link to instructions for how to submit a sample...
https://bpp.oregonstate.edu/how-submit-insect-and-spider-materials
Because there are so many ground-nesting bee species (about 70% of bee species are ground-nesters), I cannot ID the bees you are seeing without looking at a specimen. The little pillars of dried mud around the nest entrances narrow down the options a bit, but not enough to provide an ID.
Here is info from a scientific article called Nesting Habitat of Ground-nesting Bees: A Review:
"Multiple bee species build turrets, or “chimneys”, at their nest entrances. Typically, turrets rise vertically from the nest entrance, although they are sometimes curved or horizontal, as in Anthophora sp. (Batra & Norden, 1996), Diadasina distincta (Martins & Antonini, 1994) and Halictus confusus Smith (Sakagami & Michener, 1962). The turrets have consolidated and cemented inner walls, constructed from soil mixed with glandular secretions (Ordway, 1984; Neff & Simpson, 1992; Wcislo et al., 1993). The function of these turrets is unclear, but they may prevent soil particles or water from falling into the open entrance; they could help females locate their nest or recognise it among others in an aggregation; or they could keep parasites and predators, such as ants, from entering the nest."
If you want a better idea of what kind of bees you are looking at you could collect 2 or 3 specimens and send them to us at the OSU Plant Clinic. If you'd like to do that, here is a link to instructions for how to submit a sample...
https://bpp.oregonstate.edu/how-submit-insect-and-spider-materials
