Blood Bee

Natural Habitat

Open areas, grasslands, and gardens where their host ground-nesting bees are present.

Diet & Feeding

Adults feed on nectar from flowers; larvae are cleptoparasitic, consuming the pollen stores and eggs of host bees.

Behavior Patterns

They are cleptoparasites (cuckoo bees). Females enter the nests of other sweat bees, destroy the host's egg, and lay their own egg in the pre-provisioned cell.

Risks & Benefits

They pose no significant risk to humans and rarely sting unless handled. They are part of the complex ecosystem of native pollinators, though they reduce the population of their host bees.

Identified on: 6/8/2026