It’s June – where are all the native bees?

A hike in a Phoenix nature preserve today revealed very little in bloom, and consequently few native bees or butterflies.

Most of the Sonoran Desert native bees have just one generation per year, so, unlike the non-native Western Honeybee, many native bees will only be active and visible during the Spring or Summer wildflower blooms.

During my hike today, the only flowers I observed were on White Ratany, which was being visited by a bee species whose flower visits were so brief it would take an AI to get a photo,

California Barrel Cactus, whose flowers weren’t yet opened,

and Coues’ Senna, which had mainly gone to seed but still managed to produce flowers.

Native bees feed on pollen and nectar as well as flower oils for germicidal and bonding properties. Many are solitary, meaning they don’t belong to social hives, and make their nests and brood by burrowing into the ground or using tunnels in wood made by wood-boring beetles.

In my yard in North Phoenix, the native bees seem to have disappeared for a week or so before I wrote this post, so I figured they were gone for the season, even though there are plenty of Desert Marigolds, Zinnias, Sunflowers, Rush Milkweeds, Lantana and Desert Willows in bloom.

But then they reappeared. If native bees for the most part have only one generation per season, how can they be gone and then come back?

So I reached out to Elliott, our resident native bee contributor, and he had a bit of light to shed on the situation:

There’s a few things. Bet hedging, where not every egg hatches every year in case of droughts. Seasonality of host plants for sure and what else in the area is providing food that might be attracting them away from your yard. Pesticides and lack of suitable nesting habitat is a big urban problem. Also, there’s usually small bees going undetected by human observers due to their size and speed.

Elliott Gordon

In addition, I reached out to my friends in the Pollinator Gardening in the Southwest facebook group and asked what they are seeing in their yards.

The larger longhorn bees are active this month on Gaillardia pulchella flowers; Svastra obliqua and many Melissodes males and a few females of both species. The female Valley Carpenter Bees are still out every day. Lots of Triepeolus Cuckoo bees and Anthophora californica bees. The Svastra duplocincta time their June emerging with the neighbor’s Barrel Cactus flowering, which it has already and the males and females are now out and about in large numbers. Lots of activity in my Arizona garden even with the 111 degrees we had today. The number of Megachile bees are lower than usual this year, however. Wondering if the various cuckoo bees that showed up this year in greater numbers than previous were responsible.

Kim Neubauer, Phoenix West Side

I see gulf fritillary butterflies daily and occasionally giant swallowtails and queens. Lots of native bees, mainly sweat bees, leaf cutters, carpenter bees, and another that I haven’t identified.

MM, Central/Midtown Phoenix

A few Queens at the Mistflowers, weekly visit of Giant Swallowtails to the orange tree, a few Skippers at zinnias and Mexican Evening Primrose. Plus 3-4 species of native bees on the sunflowers, desert lavender, globe mallows, coreopsis, fairy duster & Superstition mallow.

MH, NE Phoenix

Phoenix temps 110. Not seeing too many  besides gulf fritillaries. Bees and wasp come around splashes in the pool to try and get water.

VC, Phoenix

A lot. At my fountain plants.

SBC, Phoenix

Plenty! My garden is full of yellow flowers and pollinators, but the wild spaces are brown and dry from lack of rain. I saw yard bee species 82 last weekend and yard moth/butterfly 100 last night.

Elliott Gordon, Albuquerque

You can learn more about native bees at:

• Elliott’s Native Bee page on PollinatorWeb
• The Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Bees page