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    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States
    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States
    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States
    Ebook261 pages1 hour

    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States

    By Gretchen LeBuhn

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    This engaging and easy-to-use natural history guidebook provides a thorough overview of native and honey bee biology and offers tools for identifying the most common bees of California and the Western United States. Full-color illustrations introduce readers to more than 30 genera of native bees, noting each one's needs and habits and placing them in their wider context. The author highlights bees’ ties to our own lives, the food we eat, and the habitat we provide, and suggests ways to support bees in our own backyards.

    In addition to helping readers understand and distinguish among major groups of bees, this guide reveals how bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystem and how many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide. As growing evidence points to declining bee populations, this book offers critical information about the bond between plants and pollinators, and between humans and nature. Thoroughly researched and full of new insights into the ancient process of pollination, Field Guide to the Common Bees of California; Including Bees of the Western United States is invaluable for the window it opens onto the biodiversity, adaptive range, and complexity of invertebrate communities.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUniversity of California Press
    Release dateSep 17, 2013
    ISBN9780520956889
    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Including Bees of the Western United States
    Author

    Gretchen LeBuhn

    Gretchen LeBuhn is Professor of Biology at San Francisco State University and the Director of the Great Sunflower Project, a national citizen science program designed to gather information about bee diversity and activity and pollinators more generally. Noel Pugh is a scientific illustrator.

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    • 3/5
      Useful, but could be more so. Too few species illustrated, and no multi-species plates for easy comparison. As another reviewer pointed out, better editing would have improved the book as well.

    Book preview

    Field Guide to the Common Bees of California - Gretchen LeBuhn

    CALIFORNIA NATURAL HISTORY GUIDES

    FIELD GUIDE TO THE

    COMMON BEES OF CALIFORNIA

    CALIFORNIA NATURAL HISTORY GUIDES

    Phyllis M. Faber, General Editor

    Field Guide to the

    COMMON BEES

    of California

    Including Bees of the

    Western United States

    Text by

    Gretchen LeBuhn

    Illustrations by

    Noel B. Pugh

    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS

    BerkeleyLos AngelesLondon

    Dedicated to Jerome G. Rozen Jr.

    University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu.

    California Natural History Guide Series 107

    University of California Press

    Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

    University of California Press, Ltd.

    London, England

    © 2013 by The Regents of the University of California

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    LeBuhn, Gretchen, 1961–.

    Field guide to the common bees of California : Including Bees of the Western United States / text by Gretchen LeBuhn ; illustrations by Noel B. Pugh.

    pagescm

    Includes index.

    ISBN 978-0-520-27283-5 (cloth : alk. paper) —ISBN 978-0-520-27284-2 (pbk. : alk. paper)

    eISBN 9780520956889

    1. Bees —California—Identification.I. Title.

    QL567.1.U6L43 2013

    595.79’9—dc232013003751

    Manufactured in China

    20  19  18  17  16  15  14  13

    10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3  2  1

    The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

    Cover image: Bee and poppy. Paintings by Noel B. Pugh.

    The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions to this book provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Fund in Environmental Studies.

    CONTENTS

    Preface

    AN INTRODUCTION TO BEES

    What Are Bees?

    Importance of Bees

    Bee Diversity

    Bee Morphology

    Bee Life Cycles

    Evolution of Social Behavior: Social versus Solitary Bees

    Parasites and Robbers

    Other Parasites and Predators

    Nesting

    Pollination Basics

    Ecosystem Services and Bees

    Conservation of Bees and Other Pollinators

    Studying Bees

    Identifying Bees

    BEE FAMILY AND GENUS ACCOUNTS

    Plasterer or Polyester Bees (Family Colletidae)

    Yellow-faced Bees or Masked Bees (Genus Hylaeus)

    Polyester Bees or Digger Bees (Genus Colletes)

    Sweat Bees (Family Halictidae)

    Sweat Bees (Genus Halictus)

    Green Sweat Bees (Genus Agapostemon)

    Sweat Bees (Genus Lasioglossum)

    Sweat Bees (Genus Dufourea)

    Cuckoo Bees (Genus Sphecodes)

    Mining Bees (Family Andrenidae)

    Digger Bees or Miner Bees (Genus Andrena)

    Panurgine Bees (Genus Panurginus)

    Miner Bees (Genus Perdita)

    Leaf-cutter Bees or Mason Bees (Family Megachilidae)

    Resin Bees or Mason Bees (Genus Dianthidium)

    Carder Bees (Genus Anthidium)

    Large Leaf-cutter Bees (Genus Megachile)

    Small Leaf-cutter Bees or Mason Bees (Genus Osmia)

    Leaf-cutter Bees (Genus Ashmeadiella)

    Mason Bees (Genus Hoplitis)

    Mason Bees (Genus Heriades)

    Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees (Family Apidae)

    Honey Bees (Genus Apis)

    Squash Bees (Genus Peponapis)

    Habropoda Bees (Genus Habropoda)

    Cuckoo Bees (Genus Nomada)

    Mining Bees (Genus Anthophora)

    Bumble Bees (Genus Bombus)

    Long-horned Bees or Sunflower Bees (Genus Diadasia)

    Long-horned Bees (Genus Melissodes)

    Large Carpenter Bees (Genus Xylocopa)

    Small Carpenter Bees (Genus Ceratina)

    Long-horned Bees (Genus Eucera)

    Long-horned Bees (Genus Tetraloniella)

    Cuckoo Bees (Genus Triepeolus)

    Appendix 1: Bee Families and Genera Found in California

    Appendix 2: Key to Females of Genera Included in This Book

    Glossary

    Resources

    Index

    PREFACE

    Why a Guide to Bees?

    From childhood on, the sight of bees visiting flowers is part of our experience of the natural world. We marvel at their industry and the mystery of their travels from flower to flower and flower to hive. The scientific study of bees has revealed that bees are an essential part of healthy ecosystems. Many plants, including important crop plants, depend on the pollination they provide—by carrying the pollen that bees use for food from flower to flower, bees ensure that flowers receive ample pollen for fertilization and seed set. There is growing evidence that many populations of bees are declining, and conservation of bees and other pollinators is a growing concern. Using this guide to identify some of the common groups of bees in California is a satisfying challenge, and it is my hope that the study of bees at any level can provide an excellent point of departure into the study of the bond between plants and pollinators and involvement in pollinator conservation.

    This guide is meant to introduce the nonprofessional to the fascinating biology of bees and to give you some tools for beginning to know the key genera of bees. By learning about bees at this level, you can know a tremendous amount about the particular biology of any bee you catch, since bees in the same genera often share nesting habits and are often similar in their degree of specialization on flowers. While we have focused on California bees, the characteristics of the genera included in this introduction can be applied across the United States and Canada in most cases. We do not provide a guide to the species of bees except for the Guide to Some of the More Common Bumble Bees of California. Bees are extraordinarily difficult to identify to the level of species, and even for scientists who specialize in knowing bees, identifying our California bees to the species level is a challenge. If you are interested in learning more about identification, we have provided a list of Key Readings and Key Web Resources in the Resources section at the end of the book.

    How to Use This Book

    This book is directed at helping you learn about the common genera of California bees. I have chosen to introduce the genera of bees because bees are significantly harder to identify at both the family level and the species level. The taxonomy follows The Bees of the World by Charles Michener (2007). While many species have very restricted ranges, most of the genera covered in this book are found across all of California, and many across the whole United States. I have, therefore, chosen not to include distribution maps. Excellent distribution maps for California species can be found on the website for Discover Life at www.discoverlife.org.

    I have provided two guides in this book. In the Bee Family and Genus Accounts, you will find a Key of Basic Bee Characteristics that will allow you to distinguish a few genera with easily discernible traits. Then, at the end of the book, you will find Appendix 2, Key to Females of Each Genus Included in the Book, which provides a matrix for distinguishing among the genera. Using it, you can fairly quickly narrow down the genera by simply determining whether the bee is larger or smaller than a worker honey bee, the bee’s color, and whether the bee has external patterning. Then, you can look at the genus account to narrow it down further. In many cases, the technical description in the genus account will require that you look at the bee under magnification to see the critical characteristics that are used to identify that genus of bees.

    Acknowledgments

    I would like to thank Jerry Rozen, Rob Brooks, Robbin Thorp, Terry Griswold, Charles Michener, Jim Cane, Steve Buchmann, Bob Minckley, James Thomson, Laurence Packer, Bryan Danforth, and the many students of the Southwestern Research Station’s Bee Course for all they have taught us about bees. The genus accounts were developed using the resources on the Discover Life website, which owes a huge debt to John Ascher. Additional recognition goes to John Ascher, who has compiled and made available so much information about the distribution and taxonomy of bees. Special recognition goes to Sam Droege for all he has done to make collecting bees easier and for contributing the key to bees in Appendix 2. The pronunciations used in this guide were developed by Sam Droege. We would also like to recognize the major contributions of Mace Vaughan and Lisa Schonberg of the Xerces Society, who helped draft early versions of some of the genus accounts. Lynn Lozier and Mike Mesler provided excellent advice on how to improve the manuscript. Leah Larkin, Fred Bove, and Mark Reynolds helped with editing of the manuscript. Much of the information on California genera came from the magnificent catalog of California bees by Andy Moldenke and Jack Neff .

    AN INTRODUCTION TO BEES

    What Are Bees?

    Anyone who has spent a lovely warm morning in a garden in spring has shared company with a bee. From a farm in the Central Valley to a community garden in the center of Los Angeles, bees are busy buzzing around, visiting flowers, gathering resources for their off spring, and in the process, transferring pollen from flower to flower.

    Bees are flying insects that first emerged about 100 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period, as part of the radiation of insects. The earliest record of bees is from fossilized amber in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

    Bees are part of a larger group of insects, the order Hymenoptera that includes wasps, sawflies (a primitive and less well-known group), and ants. Bees belong to a large group within the Hymenoptera that are distinguished, in part, by having females with stingers. This group is called the Aculeata and contains the bees, ants, and stinging wasps. Recent work on the relationship between bees and wasps shows that bees are really just a very specialized group of wasps. Formally, we say that bees are in the superfamily Apoidea along with the sphecid wasps and make up the group Apiformes. No wonder bees and wasps can be so hard to tell apart!

    While beetles were probably the first pollinators, bees were the first group of insects to really show a diversity of adaptations for pollination, such as specialized hairs and leg modifications, both for carrying pollen. This close relationship between bees and flowers is thought to have aided in the rapid evolution of different types of flowering plants and has strongly influenced both the body plans and lifestyles of bees and flowers.

    When you look at most bees, you see a fairly hearty and hairy flying insect. Although there are bees that are slender and sleek, the most well-known, like the bumble bees and honey bees, are robust and hairy. Their hairs are an essential part of the service that bees are renowned for, transferring pollen from plant to plant. The hairs hold pollen onto the bee body. However, while it may seem bees are providing this

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