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longer throat; they are not averse to collecting nectar from open at owers.
e remaining families are made up of short-tongued bees and are more
limited in their oral choices. ey are only able to take advantage of shallow
owers, such as those of the daisy or aster family and those of the carrot family.
Generally, females are larger than male bees, although there may be some
overlap in size.
Nesting
All bee families have species that take care of their young, by building nests
and providing food for them. But several families, Apidae, Halictidae, and
Megachilidae, have some species that take advantage of their relatives. ey
have become “cuckoos,” just like there are cuckoos among birds. As with
cuckoo birds (like cowbirds), cuckoo bees lay their eggs in the nests of others.
Most species of cuckoo bees only lay their eggs in the nests of a few bee species.
ere are cuckoo bee species that only parasitize the nests of a single species.
In some species of cuckoo bees, the female kills the host’s larva before laying
her egg. However, the majority of cuckoo bee larvae feed on the stored food
and the larvae of the unfortunate hosts. Cuckoo bees do not gather pollen and
have lost their pollen baskets and much of their hair. In fact, at rst glance
some cuckoo bees are oen mistaken for wasps. Cuckoo bees do visit owers
to feed on the ower’s nectar.
Aside from cuckoo bees, all bees build nests, stocking them with a nutritious
mixture of pollen, nectar, and saliva before laying their eggs, and sealing them
so the larvae remain safe. ey generally mix the dry pollen with some nectar,
kneading it into a pollen loaf used to feed their young. ey add their own
saliva to this mixture. e saliva is thought to be an important ingredient that
provides protection against bacterial and fungal infections.
Some native bees build their nests underground; others use hollow stems or
holes in trees, usually le by beetles; and some use their powerful jaws to make
holes in wood. Whatever their method, they start the job of nest building by
carefully choosing the best real estate; if conditions are not right, they continue
their search. It would not do to have their homes ooded or lacking enough
sunshine, or being too large or too small for their needs. Except for honey
bees and bumble bees, females of solitary bees provide in one cell all the food
required by their larvae to become an adult. is is called mass provisioning.