Miner bees

Gunter, the enormous German shepherd, is a puppy at heart. He found the colony of miner bees, genus Andrena, going in and out of a hole at the base of a tulip tree south of Stone Mountain. Outbound bees were clean, while inbound bees were loaded with pollen.

There are 89 species in Georgia.

I’ve also seen bee flies in the forest. The family Bombyllidae is bad news for bees.

The queen bee lays an egg into a ball of pollen and nectar and daubs it on the wall of the tunnel. A bee fly lays its eggs near the tunnels. When the bee fly egg hatches, a larva that looks like a worm enters the underground hive and feeds on the bees’ stores. The larva grows and eventually molts into another form, a predator that feeds on bee embryos.

My canine colleague, conducting his own research, concluded that miner bees aren't edible.

• Sources: Professor Mark Schlueter of Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville maintains a site called “Native Bees of Georgia” with some fine photographs:

https://native-bees-of-georgia.ggc.edu/?page_id=90

For the sad story of bees and bee flies, see David George Haskell, The Forest Unseen; New York: Viking, 2021, pp. 57-60.