St Louis has a very high level of bee diversity with 205 bee species in the area. How many species of bees can a native backyard garden support? Scientists in St Louis are very interested in this question.
My garden recently participated in a SLU graduate student project studying urban bees. The students came to my yard and identified all the bees they could find once a month during the summer. My garden supports bee species from at least 14 different genera.
The scientists found;
Andrena (mining bees)
Anthidium (potter bees)
Augochloroni (metallic sweat bees)
Bombus gresiocollis (brown-belted bumblebee)
Bombus impatiens (common eastern bumble bee)
Ceratina (small carpenter bees)
Dianthidium (pebble bees)
Halictus (furrow bees)
Heriades (resin bees)
Hylaeus (masked bees)
Lasioglossum (sweat bees)
Megachile (leaf cutter bees)
Melitoma taurea (mallow bee)
Ptilothrix bombiformus (hibiscus bee)
Xylocopa virginica (carpenter bee)
My native plant garden is about a quarter acre and has been developed from a boring turf monoculture gradually over the last 10 years with the final section of lawn conversion happening about three years ago. The garden is not 100% native. I have a blue spruce, magnolia, a few tomatoes, swiss chard, some onions, an apple tree, etc. Probably my garden is over 80% native plants especially if you count the two big silver maples that tower over it. I try to grow a wide variety of native plants not only because plants are cool but they also attract interesting things to the garden, like bees.
Many bees are easier to identify if you see which flower they are visiting. Like the hibiscus bee was visiting the hibiscus flowers and rubbing itself all over the pollen in the center of the flower. I have heard that sometimes a hibiscus bee will be found sleeping in the hibiscus flower but I guess I do not wake up early enough to witness it. Other bees are named for the places they construct like carpenter bees can be found excavating tunnels through wood, like my deck. The potter bees build their nests out of mud that they carefully mix and transport in their jaws.
The scientist were especially interested in the bee hotel I have on my front porch which is busily being filled with eggs by a group of leaf cutter bees. The bees seek out holes in wood, either natural or man made, in a protected spot. My bee hotel is a block of wood with several holes drilled in it that sits on my south facing covered front porch. In the hole the bees lay a single egg, create a catch of food for the newly hatched baby to eat, and then take a piece of leaf the build a door to protect the egg. If the hole is deep they may lay several eggs with a leaf door between each egg. Amazingly, the eggs will hatch in the reverse order that they were laid with the outer most egg hatching first so that each baby only needs to eat through one leaf door to escape out into the world. I often see signs of leaf cutter bee on leaves around my garden. The leaves look like a crazy hole punch has been taken out of the leaves at random. I don’t mind the damage. It is far too little to hurt the plant and the cutleaf edge if very pleasing.
More about our bees https://www.stlzoo.org/files/9413/3303/3161/MO_Bee_Guide_w_boarder.pdf
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