Oil-collecting-bee
Guides
Centris atripes
Black-legged Oil-Digger
Centris atripes is a species of oil-collecting bee in the family Apidae, commonly known as the Black-legged Oil-Digger. It occurs in Central America and North America. Like other Centris species, it has been observed collecting floral oils rather than nectar from certain plants. It is a documented pollinator of Krameria erecta and Senna wislizeni var. painteri, with activity on the latter occurring during the rainy season.
Centris caesalpiniae
Caesalpinia Oil-Digger
Centris caesalpiniae is a species of oil-collecting bee in the family Apidae, first described by Cockerell in 1897. It belongs to the tribe Centridini, a group of bees specialized in collecting floral oils rather than nectar. The species is active in spring and has been documented visiting flowers of Krameria and Acacia in desert habitats. It occurs in the warm deserts of North America, including the Chihuahuan Desert, where it contributes to the region's exceptional bee biodiversity.
Centris cockerelli
Cockerell's Oil-Digger
Centris cockerelli is a species of oil-collecting bee in the family Apidae, described by Fox in 1899. As a member of the tribe Centridini, it is one of the bees specialized in collecting floral oils rather than nectar. The species occurs in Central America and North America, though specific details about its biology remain poorly documented in scientific literature.
Centris flavofasciata
Yellow-banded Oil-Digger
Centris flavofasciata is a species of oil-collecting bee in the family Apidae, tribe Centridini. It is known to serve as a host for the cleptoparasitic bee Mesoplia sapphirina, which exploits its nests. Like other Centris species, it has been observed collecting floral oils rather than nectar from certain plants. The species occurs in Middle and North America.
Centris hoffmanseggiae
Centris hoffmanseggiae is a centridine bee in the family Apidae. It is known to occur in North America and Middle America. Like other members of the genus Centris, it is an oil-collecting bee that gathers floral oils from specialized plant structures. The species was described by Cockerell in 1897.
Centris lanosa
Wooly Oil-Digger
Centris lanosa is a specialized oil-collecting bee in the family Apidae, commonly known as the wooly oil-digger. It is one of the few bee species that has evolved to collect fatty oils rather than nectar from flowers, specifically from Krameria species. The bee mixes these oils with pollen to provision its larvae. It has a disjunct distribution across the southeastern and southwestern United States, with populations separated by more than 250 km.
Centris pallida
Pallid Desert-Digger, digger bee, desert bee, pallid bee
Centris pallida is a solitary desert bee native to the Sonoran Desert region of North America. Males exhibit two distinct morphs associated with alternative reproductive tactics: large patrollers that use olfactory cues to locate buried virgin females near the ground, and small hoverers that use visual cues to find females above vegetation. The species has evolved remarkable thermal adaptations to survive extreme desert temperatures, including high thoracic conductance and dorsal solar reflectance in large-morph males. Long-term studies document a persistent decline in male body size since the 1970s, with potential consequences for the stability of alternative reproductive tactics.
Centris rhodopus
red-legged centris, Red-legged Oil-Digger
Centris rhodopus is a species of oil-collecting bee in the tribe Centridini, family Apidae. It is distributed across Central America and North America. Like other Centris species, it has been observed collecting floral oils from specialized oil-producing flowers, particularly in the genus Krameria. The species is part of a group of bees adapted to harvesting non-nectar floral rewards.
Exomalopsis tibialis
Exomalopsis tibialis is a species of bee in the family Apidae, described by Timberlake in 1980. It belongs to the tribe Exomalopsini, a group of small to medium-sized bees commonly known as oil-collecting bees due to their specialized floral associations. The species is known from Middle America and North America.
Melitta
Blunt-horn Bees
Melitta is a genus of solitary bees in the family Melittidae, comprising approximately 40 species distributed across Africa and the northern temperate zone. Most species are Palaearctic in distribution, with three rare species occurring in North America. These bees are commonly known as Blunt-horn Bees and are characterized by their specialized ecological associations with particular host plants.