Blood bee - unnamed 1

Blood bees are usually black and red. They are small or medium-sized bees that are cleptoparasitic of ground-nesting bees.

Species introduction

At a glance
Latin name: 
Sphecodes sp.
Family: 
Sweat bees
Family Latin name: 
HALICTIDAE
Category: 
Insects other

Species description

Species description

The individual photographed here was visiting an umbellifer for nectar (in August 2023). Although this individual looks quite hairy, it lacks hairs and other structures for pollen collection. 

Each of the 17 different British species of Sphecodes bees - and which the one photographed here is, is unknown - will use different species of host bees in whose nest the female will lay its eggs. This degree of specialization is typical in the natural world - but no less fascinating.

Species photographs

Larger photograph(s) (click to magnify)
Blood bees are usually black and red. They are small or medium-sized bees that are cleptoparasitic of ground-nesting bees.
Blood bees are thought of as cuckoo bees, as females enter a host's nest, force open a cell, destroy the egg or grub within.

Details

Species family information

The genus of Sphecodes bees - or Blood bees - are usually black and red, although the red colour derives from cuticle pigment rather than blood. Their name stems from the Greek Phex (wasp) and odes (like), as they resemble wasps.

They are small or medium-sized bees that are cleptoparasitic of ground-nesting bees. There are in the region of 17 different species in this genus of bees. They are also thought of as cuckoo bees, as females enter a host's nest, force open a cell, destroy the egg or grub within before laying their own egg and then resealing the cell. Males are usually found on flowers, where they will seek nectar.

Sphecodes bees belong to the family Halictidae; these are commonly called Sweat bees because of their attraction to perspiration.

Category information

Insects evolved in the Ordovician from a crustacean ancestral lineage as terrestrial invertebrates with six legs (the Hexapoda). This was the time when terrestrial plants first appeared. In the Devonian some insects developed wings and flight, the first animals to do so. An early flying group was the Odonata from the Carboniferous, the damselflies and dragonflies, which have densely-veined wings and long, ten-segmented bodies. They are day-flying carnivores, with an aquatic larval stage, so are commonly seen flying near water. The carnivorous larvae are called nymphs. Odonata species are short-lived, damselflies surviving for 2-4 weeks, dragonflies for up to 2 months.

Some insect groups in the Cretaceous co-evolved with the flowering plants, and they have had a close association ever since. These groups are the Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants), the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the Diptera (flies), and the Coleoptera (beetles). The diversity of beetles is astonishing. Of all the known animal species on the planet, one in five is a beetle!