Strawberry Pollinators - The Bees

 

Lasioglossum, subgenus Dialictus,  Metallic-Sweat Bee

Perhaps because strawberry flowers bloom early in the year while it's still cool, almost all the bees I've seen foraging among them have been wild, native species as distinct from the imported, though sometimes naturalized, Honey Bees, which become more active at temperatures above 55 degrees.

Colletes inaequalis, Unequal Cellophane Bee

It would also make sense that these flora and fauna have a preferential relationship, the native bees' tastes, habits, and mouthparts having co-evolved with the structure, timing, and nutritional offerings of this particular flower.

Ceratina sp., Small Carpenter Bee

The strawberry flowers are only five-eighths to three-quarters of an inch across. You can see that many of these native species are tiny creatures that, to the casual eye, might not be recognized as bees at all as they flit quietly through the vegetation.

Nomada sp., Nomad Bee

Other than honey bees and bumble bees, which are considered 'social' because they live cooperatively with individuals developing specialized tasks that support the colony, native species are solitary bees in the sense that every female is fertile, and typically inhabits a nest she constructs herself. There is no division of labor so these nests lack queens and workers. Solitary bees typically produce neither honey nor beeswax, but they do collect pollen to feed their young.

Augochlorini, Green-Sweat Bee

According to a U. S. Department of the Interior website, about 20%-45% of native bees are pollen specialists, meaning that they use only pollen from one species (or genus) of plants. If that plant is removed, the bee goes away. If bees are removed, the plant doesn't reproduce.

Apis mellifera, Western Honey Bee

This is the only honey bee I noticed investigating a strawberry flower. It is considerably larger than the native species, with body parts more adapted to transporting both pollen and nectar home to its brood, and to the domestic harvest of human beekeepers.