In this fascinating video below, learn about the biology of beach bees! Bumble bee mimicking Digger Bees (Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana) are beach bums, hanging out on the sands of Northern California and Oregon. From Deep Look:
Once they've mated, the females spend the spring digging their nests into sandy cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
They find a nearby source of water like a stream and slurp water into a pouch in their abdomen called a crop. They can make 80 daily trips back and forth from the stream to a cliff onto which they spray the water to soften it up. This allows them to dig a series of holes into which they lay their eggs.
— Do many bees nest in the ground? Yes. About 70% of the world's bee species nest underground.
— Where else do bees make their nests? Mason bees, such as blue orchard bees, make their nests inside narrow cavities – for example, hollow twigs. And carpenter bees dig their nests in wood.
— Why do bees mimic other bees? The bumblebee-mimic digger bees featured in this episode don't sting. But they resemble bumblebees like the yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii), which does sting. This resemblance helps the bumblebee-mimic scare away predators.