Diversity
Discover the colorful world of pollinators.
Most people are familiar with honeybees, but there are many more pollinators. Wild bees, like bumblebees, or other insects such as wasps, hoverflies, butterflies and bugs pollinate a wide range of different flowers by transferring pollen from blossom to blossom. In exotic countries, hummingbirds and special bats are important pollinators as well.
The majority of wildbees are not living in colonies like the honeybee, but are solitary insects. Only bumblebees and some of the sweat bees form annual colonies and live together. There are many other differences in who and where the species live. About 70% of the wildbees live in the ground, most of them belong to the species of mining bees. The other 30% nest in crevices, deadwood or in stalks that might contain marrow. Crevices are very suitable for nest e.g. of the carder bees, while deadwood is preferred by carpenter bees, fork-tailed flower-bees and Willughby’s leafcutter. Mason bees, yellow-faced bees, scissor bees and large-headed resin-bees occupy empty of filled stems. Especially mason bees are well known to become creative and use human-made holes everywhere they can find them.
Domestic species
Flowers4Bees does not only care for the honeybees, but also for their wild relatives and neighbors. At this point, we would like to give you some insight into the world of our domestic pollinators and insects.
Apis mellifera
Adrena vaga
Bombus hypnorum
Aphantopus hyperantus
Syrphidae sp.
Heriades truncorum
Nomada alboguttata
Andrena fulva
Episyrphus balteatus
Sphaerophoria scripta
Bombus lapidarius
Macropis fulvipes
Lycaenidae
Vespinae sp.
Bicornis sp.
Pieris napi
Adrena sp.
Bombus terrestris
Epeoloides coecutiens
Artogeia rapae
Vanessa cardui
Bombus pascuorum
Myathropa florea
Volucella pellucens
Vanessa atlanta
Andrena gravida
Volucella zonaria
Dasysypruhs tricinctus
Gonepteryx rhamni
Aglais urticae
Trichius fasciatus
Didea fasciata
Eristalis arbustorum
Lycaena phlaesas
Syrphus ribesii
Spheciformes
Helophilus pendulus
Nomada fabriciana
Helophilus trivittatus
Tenthredo campestris
Bombus humilis
Myopa buccata
Osmia caerulescens
Adrena biocolor
Chrysis fulgida
Megachile willughbiella
Andrena cineraria
Andrena haemorrhoa
Halictus scabiosae
Anthidum manicatum
Osmia bicornis
Heteropterus morpheus
Philanthus triangulum
Aglais io
Identification
This large diversity makes it difficult to determine the species of pollinator that just flew by or sat down on a flower in your garden. These links can help you to identify common insects:
- Buglife.org provides a general overview about different types of pollinators and pictures of some common bees, wasps, hoverflies and beetles
- The Bumblebee Conservation Trust goes into more detail about bumblebee species that are domestic in UK
- Find out about common bee species in Denmark under vildebier.dk
- If you can’t find any information about a specific type of pollinator online, try to contact your local beekeeper association{:}
