Oil-collecting-bees
Guides
Centris
Oil-diggers
Centris is a genus of approximately 250 large apid bees distributed from the southern United States through South America. Females are specialized oil collectors, possessing morphological adaptations for gathering floral oils from plants, primarily in the family Malpighiaceae, which they use for larval nutrition and cell construction. The genus is sister to the corbiculate bees (honey bees, bumble bees, stingless bees) and represents an important lineage for understanding bee evolution and pollination ecology.
Epeoloides
Macropis Cuckoo Bee
Epeoloides is a genus of kleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bees in the family Apidae, tribe Osirini. The genus comprises two known species: Epeoloides coecutiens (Fabricius, 1775) in Europe and Epeoloides pilosulus (Cresson, 1878) in North America. Both species are nest parasites of oil-collecting bees in the genus Macropis (Melittidae), which themselves are specialized pollinators of oil-producing flowers in the genus Lysimachia. This tripartite ecological dependency—between flower, host bee, and parasite—makes Epeoloides one of the rarest and most vulnerable bee genera in the Holarctic region.
Macropidini
Macropidini is a tribe of bees within the family Melittidae, subfamily Melittinae. These bees are solitary and ground-nesting, with most species belonging to the genus Macropis. They are notable for their specialized oil-collecting behavior, gathering floral oils from Lysimachia (Primulaceae) flowers to provision their nests. This oil-collecting adaptation is rare among bees and represents a distinctive ecological specialization.