Cellphange Bees

Types of Bees Types of Bees Types of Wasps

Cellophane bees are a genus (Colletes) of bees in the family Colletidae, more commonly called Plasterer Bees, Masked or Yellow-faced Bees.

Easily mistaken for honeybees at a distance, most of the close to one hundred species found in the United States are classified as solitary, ground nesters.

The nicknake cellophane bees comes not from their clear wings but from their nest construction habits, which involves building cellophane like membranes around the nest cells.

Rather than flying from flowering plant to flowering plant in their territory, cellophane bees generally only pollinate specific groups of plants. The striped abdomen is a good starting place for identification.

© 2009 Patricia A. Michaels