L'Ivrogne Prolifique

Above: two different species of fairy bee

Bees of the genus Perdita, also known as fairy bees, are some of the smallest bees in the world. Their tiny bodies can measure as little as 1.6mm long, which is smaller than the eyes of many bumblebees and carpenter bees.

Above: a fairy bee depicted next to a carpenter bee (genus Xylocopa)

The smallest species in this genus is the mini fairy bee, Perdita minima, which is so small that it's often mistaken for an ant.

Above: Perdita minima standing next to a quarter

As this book explains:

With almost 640 species, most restricted to the southwestern USA and adjacent parts of Mexico, this genus forms a species swarm of mostly very small ground-nesting bees. One of its species, the aptly named Perdita minima, shares the record for being the smallest bee in the world at just 1/16th of an inch (1.6 millimeters) in length. Unsurprisingly, it favors similarly tiny flowers, such as those of the whitemargin sandmat (Chamaesyce albomarginata).

Above: close-ups of Perdita perpallida and Perdita heliotropii

Fairy bees are solitary, meaning that they don't form colonies or live together in hives. Each female builds her own nest by creating a small tunnel in the ground and then stocking it with pollen.

Above: a fairy bee standing on a dime and another one standing on a quarter

This article describes the nesting process in greater detail:

Fairy Bees are “mining” bees, referring to the fact that they are ground nesting bees. The females excavate tunnels in the ground somewhere within a short distance of a food source. They then visit flowers, feeding on nectar and collecting pollen on specialized hairs on their legs known as “scopae.”

The females then deliver these pollen bundles to their subterranean nests as a food source for their larva. The larva hatch, consume the pollen bundle, develop through metamorphosis into adult bees and the cycle continues.

Above: Perdita minima crawling on the antenna of a carpenter bee

Most fairy bees are specialist foragers with very short tongues, so they prefer shallow flowers. They typically fly during the summer and autumn, timing their emergence to coincide with their favorite host plant.

Above: Perdita leotola

Sources & More Info:

Minnesota Native Bees: Fairy Bees

Bees of the World: Genus Perdita

Honey Bee Suite: Perdita minima, the Smallest of the Small (PDF)

Field Guide to the Common Bees of California: Genus Perdita

Local News Pasadena: Photographing a Nearly Microscopic Bee You've Probably Never Noticed

iNaturalist: Fairy Bees

“The only memory of the bee is a painting made by a dying flower.”

I don't think bee sex works like that

@thehappysatan , that is because you are not a bee scientist, and like most people who are not bee scientists, you know fuck-all about how bee sex works. I only know what I know after falling down a research hole thanks to this XKCD comic.

TL&DR, there are countless bee species, and they don't all have sex the same way!

We are used to basing our assumptions about how bees reproduce on honeybees, and that's not surprising, considering human beings have a more vested interest in researching bees that make honey than we do in researching bees that do not make honey.

But you know what they say about assumptions.

In fact, many bee species are solitary bees (as opposed to hive bees). They don't produce honey. More to the point, because they don't live in a colony, they don't live within a sexual hierarchy in which the vast majority of the colony is functionally infertile and only a select few specimens are responsible for all reproduction.

Which brings us back to the point, which is the XKCD comic:

ALT

[source]

@fuckyeahchinesefashion @rainyside while there are companies that manufacture artificial honeycomb, the purpose isn't to trick customers into buying fake honey. The purpose is actually to increase the production of real honey. The idea is that if bees are provided with pre-made combs, the colony can spend less time and energy being comb architects and more time producing honey.

The bees are still gathering nectar from real flowers and regurgitating it into the comb, so the resulting honey still contains real pollen and real bee digestive enzymes. The difference is that the bees didn't build the storage container the honey ends up in.

Here's a company that makes artificial honeycomb. As you can see, they're marketing them to beekeepers to use in their apiaries:

Planning a new botanical mead!

I’m also doing a pineappleweed blossom one.

Finally found a use for those old crystal geyser gallon jugs I never threw away. I do actually have rubber stoppers that fit in these (size 7.5) so I will be putting in airlocks (and adding a bit more water) later, when fermentation starts to slow down around day 4 or 5. I always do open fermentation for the first few days to avoid having to use a blowoff tube.

To treat common mites, beekeepers coat their bees in powdered sugar. This kills the mites but doesn’t hurt the bees, and they will clean it off anyway. It does, however, make them look like tiny bee ghosts until they groom themselves.

Skunks are natural predators of bees. They will grab a mouthful of bees and suck the juices out before spitting out the bees’ carcasses. To keep the skunks from doing this, beekeepers will build their hives high enough that the skunks have to reach their front paws up to get to the hives. This way, their bellies are exposed and the bees are able to fight back and sting them. Either way, bees die. 

Me, hanging on by a thread: