European orchard bee
The European orchard bee is a fuzzy bee with a black head and a bright rusty red furry bottom. The females have two tiny horns on their face. It flies in early spring and helps fruit trees make fruit.
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Fun facts
It does not live in a hive. Each female builds her own nest in a hole, like a crack in a wall or a hollow plant stem.
It does not make honey. It packs pollen and nectar into its nest as food for its babies.
Farmers use it to help pollinate almond, apple and pear trees.
It can even live in the middle of big cities and buzzes around flowers sold at markets.
It spends the winter as a grown-up bee, snug inside its cocoon.
Most asked questions about European orchard bee
?Does the European orchard bee make honey?
No. It stores pollen and nectar in its nest only as food for its young.
?Where does the European orchard bee nest?
In holes and cracks, often in house walls or in bee hotels.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Osmia cornuta
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Megachilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Megachilidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Africa, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Osmia cornuta (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gilles San Martin. CC BY-SA 2.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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