Nothing heralds spring and summer better than the vibrating hum of bees on the wing. Bees are a group of winged insects probably best known for their role as pollinators. We praise bees for their important role in our food systems. We depend on them.
However, if you ask Andony Melathopoulos, coordinator for Oregon Bee Project and OSU Pollinator Health Extension Specialist, there is more to bees than pollination.
There are estimated to be about 700 different species of bees in Oregon, each one with a unique life history. There are solitary bees and social bees; bees that nest in trees or on the ground; bees that are very reluctant to sting and those that will get you crying to your mother—the diversity is incredible. So incredible, in fact, that it has inspired a statewide movement to document all of Oregon’s bees.
The Bee Atlas program is a community science effort to inventory Oregon’s native bees, track populations, and educate Oregonians about bee biodiversity. Andony is part of that effort—helping coordinate events, including Bee School for those interested in becoming part of the project.
I met Andony at Kingston Prairie Preserve just outside of Stayton to go on a bee hunt and learn more about his work around bees.
Preserve
It was late afternoon when I arrived just ahead of Andony and wandered out onto the mounds of soft wet soil. The ground was patchy with wildflowers and shrubs growing among the hummocks of grass. A small babbling creek ran across the nearly flat open terrain. I walked tentatively toward the creek to look around before circling back, as there is no trail system at Kingston Prairie Preserve.
Soon Andony pulled up and we continued our journey deeper into the preserve together.
“This is my favorite one,” Andony stated, referring to the collection of properties managed by Green Belt Land Trust, a conservation non-profit based in Corvallis.
Though we missed peak bloom, the prairie was still quite beautiful in the afternoon light. We walked by some purple camas and shooting stars. Tall white saxifrage and yellow monkeyflower were also in bloom.
Honey, Honey
“I’ve worked with bees my entire professional life,” Andony told me, by way of an introduction. “I worked for years on one species of bee—the honey bee.”
Most people know honey bees. Veracious pollinators and producers of honey—their small fuzzy black and amber striped bodies are well recognized. You might call them celebrities of the bee world. (I mean there are at least a couple of movies made about them—I’m looking at you Bee Movie.)
Though fascinating creatures, Andony’s love for honey bees primarily stems from the community of people that work with honey bees. In college, he got involved in beekeeper organizations and really enjoyed it.
This hive mentality has carried him forward to his work now with the Oregon Bee Atlas. Seeing other groups, like native plant societies, motivated him to do the same for bees.
“It gave me the impetus to have people constantly tugging at me,” Andony remarked, “Asking questions…’ what is this?’ Is it weird?’”
Honey bees remain Andony’s favorite bee to date. Oddly, the first bee we saw on our hunt was a small honey bee.
“Hey, what are you doing here?” asked Andony, as it flew off.
Our State is the Best
Andony and I followed the creek, looking for interesting flowers and bees that might be visiting them. As mentioned earlier, there are a lot of species of bees in Oregon.
“We think we have about 700 species,” said Andony. As a comparison, “there are only about 500 species east of the Mississippi.”
Of course, this begs the question—why?
Andony highlighted two main reasons for bee biodiversity in the state.
One: geographic zones. Oregon has a lot of geographic zones with unique climatic characteristics. From the wet coastal regions to mountains to high deserts—the ecology varies border to border. Because of this, flower and bee species have radiated—evolved to fit each climatic zone.
Two: desert bees. Much of Oregon’s bee diversity is owed to the diversity of bees that survived the last ice age in Mesoamerica. These desert-loving bees traveled North as conditions warmed providing an input of biodiversity into the region.
“Bees love the desert,” said Andony.
Not a Bee
At this point, we had not had much luck finding any bees. Maybe it was already getting too cool out. Bees tend to be more active when temperatures are warm. Whatever the case, Andony and I decided to look for a place to hop over the creek.
Before we made the hop, I saw something moving among the flowers.
“A hoverfly,” stated Andony. “Lots of people mix up flies and bees.”
Standing there, I was pretty sure I was one of those people.
“How can you tell them apart?” I asked
“Both are insects,” he began, and “Most insects have two pairs of wings. The difference is that a fly’s second pair of wings have been reduced to what is called a halter—a little gyroscope that allows it to suspend itself in midair.”
In other words, flies hover.
Flies can also be carnivorous or parasitic, feeding on other insects. Bees on the other hand are unique in that they get all their protein from pollen.
Shortly, another fly hovered by saxifrage. Not a bee.
Then out of the corner of my eye—more movement. Andony got out his net and swoop, he caught whatever had flown by.
“Looks like some parasitic wasp,” said Andony, getting a better look. “Its antennae are very low and vibrating—looking for prey.” They, like flies, rely on other insects as a protein source.
According to Andony bees are actually specialized wasps. While wasps paralyze and store prey in holes in the ground, bees do the same but with balls of pollen.
Wasps can also be distinguished from bees by their form.
“They have a tight waist between the thorax and abdomen,” described Andony. Not a bee.
Andony put the wasp on ice in hopes that we could get a picture of it later. It flew away before I could get the shot.
Long-horned on Ice
“This place is like a gas station,” said Andony, as we watched everything, but bees fly by. “There are a lot of things that like nectar.”
Then, out of the corner of his eye, Andony spotted a small flying insect alight on a geranium. And with a quick flick of the wrist, he had the insect in his net.
“You’ve got yourself a male spring long-horned bee!” he exclaimed. “You will love it!”
Long-horned bees are known for their long antennae—hence the name. Male long-horned have extra-long antennae and a “little yellow nose.”
According to Andony, male bees in general have an extra antennae segment—which is helpful for sex identification. And as male bees do not have stingers, this information can be valuable for someone who studies bees for a living. Most long-horned bee species emerge in the summer.
“It is always on a sunflower,” Andony mused.
Our fuzzy friend was an early spring species. We carefully put him in a makeshift cooler to slow him down for a photo. This time we were successful!
It’s all about the Plants
Andony and I continued scanning the prairie in the hopes of finding more bees.
“I like the color over there,” said Andony pointing towards a cluster of wildflowers nearby.
And that is just it, isn’t it? Flowers. Flowers are the key to finding bees, so I asked Andony what sort of flowers bees prefer?
The answer turned out to be more complicated than I imagined.
First, “You find the strangest and weirdest bees in the weirdest plant communities,” Andony said. In places like “the Siskiyou’s, Steens, Alvord desert, and Wallowa’s.”
“All the cool places,” I remarked.
“Any cool place in the state,” Andony agreed. Where the plants are weird so are the bees.
Specialists
Second, “Bees specialize,” said Andony.
As plants evolved with greater complexity some 100 million years ago, bee evolution also took off.
“Bees are in competition,” Andony explained. Competition with each other for pollen.
Specializing for a specific flower or group of flowers, reduced competition by giving a bee specialist a leg up.
“The one plant I was really hoping would be in bloom popcorn flowers,” Andony mentioned wistfully, “They have a number of really specialist bees in them.”
Third, not all bees are specialists. Many are generalists, like honey bees and bumble bees, and are happy to eat pollen from many different sources.
“Bumble bees like monkeyflower,” said Andony, but they also like a whole host of other plants. No monkeyflower around? No problem. How about some lavender?
So, when it comes to flower preferences, it really depends on the natural history of the bee. A rare bee will only be in a rare environment on a rare flower, but a generalist bee will be attracted to many different flowers.
Gardening for Bees
Andony did offer some general tips, however, for attracting bees to the home garden.
“If I was going to snazz up my garden. I would definitely go for anything in the composite family,” he remarked. “Black-eyed Susan, echinacea, and also golden rod,” Andony suggested, “Golden rod is one that I really love… and it attracts a lot of bees.”
Other plants Andony mentioned during our walk are Oregon Grape, sunflowers, and lavender.
Cinderella Bee
Andony and I continued to meander along the creek until we found a good place to cross. We made the leap across the small divide, landing with a thud on the soft earth.
As we walked amongst the tall grasses and shrubs, I asked Andony what else bees require, besides flowers?
“They nest in a lot of ways,” said Andony—some nest in the ground, others in trees or other woody plants, and some build their nests, for example. Others still will take up “rent” in already formed nests.
One nest-building tale is that of the small carpenter bee.
Andony began, “Here is a pithy stem,” grabbing at a nearby plant and holding the stem up for inspection. “It if was later in the year, you might see some holes in the end here.”
Carpenter bees will take the pith and grind it up into sawdust, hollowing out the stem and creating a chamber. Once complete, they will crawl into the chamber, mound up some pollen inside and lay an egg. They will then use the sawdust to create a partition and repeat.
Here is where the story turns into a Brother’s Grimm fairytale.
“They have Cinderella daughters,” Andony states. “The first offspring they raise, they don’t feed very much.” He paused for dramatic effect. “But what she can do is block the door with her head.”
Again, one of the strategies bees, wasps, flies, and other insects employ is to use the nest of others to lay their eggs.
Cinderella is there to protect the nest from these intruders, ensuring her brothers’ and sisters’ survival at her own expense.
Community Science
Andony led the way, as we continued to wander the meadows looking for bees, but we weren’t having any luck. After a few starts and stops, we leaped back across the creek in search of some more suitable shrubs and trees.
Even though we weren’t finding many bees today, clearly there are a lot of bees out there. In 2019, 25,022 specimens were submitted to the Oregon Bee Atlas, raising unique species estimates to 650.
“About 190 volunteers contribute to the Atlas,” said Andony. And they are just getting started.
“It is ongoing,” Andony explained, “There is so much environmental change. It is a dynamic process.”
Anyone interested in volunteering for Bee Atlas must first complete the Master Melittologist program offered by OSU extension. The program includes online training, a field course, microscope training, and group collection outings.
“Then they become someone that can enter data for the state,” said Andony.
Of course, to get to the next level, the Journey level, requires a test.
“You get a box of bees and must identify to genus, and for bumble bees to species,” Andony described. There are 25 or so species of bumble bee.
I would most definitely fail that test.
Getting Hooked
Still struggling to capture any new bee species, we beelined it over to a flowering tree on the other side of the property. It was a beautiful serviceberry tree, or Saskatoon, with the white petals of the flower open and welcoming. The area was a hum with activity—though most of it unreachable above our heads.
As we watched various insects cruise by, Andony told me how we got hooked on bees, and why others might care too.
Of course, the easy answer as to why we feel we should care about bees, according to Andony is that they help feed us. “Agricultural food systems depend on pollinators,” and what are bees if not excellent pollinators.
But pollination isn’t a complete answer. In fact, most of our native bees do not contribute to food production.
For Andony bees are about more than the services they provide. His love for bees stems from just how cool they are.
“They have crazy, weird natural histories,” he gushed— “there are bees that are cuckoos on other bees, specialists on certain plants, iridescent green bees, jet black bees, bees that build little tunnels…and bees that stay in diapause and may not emerge during a drought year.”
Then of course there is the “complicated, fascinating interplay between regions, flora, and bee genera.”
What is there not to love?
“I think most people love things first but are bashful about it, and need to try to justify their feelings,” said Andony. Hence, the need to find an “easy answer.”
Andony argues that the first feeling of love is all the justification anyone needs and hopes to encourage others to follow their passion as he has.
The Bee Atlas and Master Mellitologist program are his way of giving structure to those that love bees and want to really get to know them. He hopes to provide just enough guidance to “ignite their curiosity.”
Getting to Know you
After lingering for a while at the serviceberry tree, we decided to make our way back toward the entrance to the preserve.
As we walked, I asked Andony for a list of beginner bees. I was going to need a lot of structure, indeed!
Here is what he suggested:
- The honey bee (Apis mellifera – 1 species). Fuzzy, with tan banding, they are easy to pick out. Most people are sort of familiar with honey bees, so it is a good place to start.
- The bumble bee (Bombus spp – 25 species). Also, distinct—their large girth and extra hairiness are a dead giveaway. Bumble bees are also a lot of fun to observe because you can track them through the season. In early spring, queen bees hover over the ground looking for a nest. A bit later, tiny worker bees emerge to forage. Finally, the males are kicked out of the hive and left to roam the countryside. Look for them on Lavender where they often congregate.
- Longhorn bees (Eucera spp – spring longhorn ~ 10 species; Melissoides spp. – summer longhorn ~ 40 species). With their extra-long antennae, perhaps among the cutest groups of bees. Look for summer longhorn species on sunflowers.
- Small carpenter bees (Ceratina spp. ~ 5 species). Andony describes them as “little ants with wings.” Small carpenter bees can be found nesting in raspberry cane and spirea.
- And finally, mason bees (Osmia spp. ~ 75 species). Mason bees are in a family of their own. Besides their often dark or metallic color, mason bees can be distinguished from other bees by the way they carry pollen on their bellies and nest in holes in the ground. Look for mason bees on Oregon grape.
And with that, “You got the bare surface of bee biodiversity in your mind,” Andony proclaimed.
If that isn’t enough, Andony also recommended the book, Bees in your Backyard by Joseph Wilson and Olivia Messenger-Carril. Go ahead and feed your bee obsession.
Bee are Family
We didn’t catch any more bees that day. The sun was dropping too low, and the energy of the afternoon was waning. But I found myself far from disappointed as I headed for home.
Andony had invited me into his hive—shared his passion for his work. It was invigorating and just plain fun.
There are five bee families in the state of Oregon—Andony shared this fact with me as our visit was ending. But he was forgetting one—a family of people that love bees and have put in the time and study to observe them.
One of the things that Andony really emphasized during our visit is the value of the bee-person community.
“The thing that I love the most about bees…” started Andony… “the people.”
Andony Melathopoulos is a coordinator for Oregon Bee Project and OSU Pollinator Health Extension Specialist. He also hosts a weekly podcast called PolliNation.