SA BeeKeeper

  • Home
  • Printable
  • Honey
    • Honey Remedies
      • Honey Uses for health
    • South African Honey Life
    • South America, Ecuador honey
  • Recipes
    • Honey Recipes
      • Baking with honey
      • Dressings and Sauces with honey
      • Meals with honey
      • Snacks and Treats
    • My Recipe Book
  • Beekeeping Maintenance
    • Harvesting Honey
    • Bee Wax and Propolis uses
    • Building boxes and Frames
      • South Africa
      • South America Ecuador
    • Catching new warms
      • Ecuador South America
      • South Africa
    • Polination
      • South Africa
    • Predators and Pests
  • About The Beekeepers.
  • Picture Gallery
  • Bee Species and Life cycle and Habits
    • All Bee Species
      • Bumblebee
        • Black Bumble Bee
        • Carder Buff Tailed or knapweed bumble bee.
        • Hairy footed Plumipes Bee
      • Carpenter Bee
      • Honey Bee
        • Queen Bee
        • Drone Honey Bee
        • Africanized Cape honey bee
        • Carniolans, honey bee
      • Leaf Cutter Bee
        • Red Leaf Cutter Bee
        • Dark Leaf Cutter Bee
        • Patchwork Leaf Cutter Bee
      • Mason Bee
        • Blue Mason Bee
        • Red Mason Bee
      • The Stingless Honey Bee
      • Sweat Bee
        • Dark Sweat Bee
        • Metallic blue sweat bee
        • Metallic Green Sweat Bee
      • Orchid Bee
      • Other insects
        • A Bee Fly
      • South Africa Bee Life
      • South african Flowers for Bees
      • Vilcabamba Ecuador S.America Flowers
      • Vilcabamba Ecuador South America Bee Life
  • About Policies
    • Copyright Policy
    • Privacy Policy
    • Disclosure Policy

Glistening Green Orchid Bee

All Bee Species, Bee Species and Life cycle and Habits, Life cycle and habits and duties of the bee, Orchid Bee, Vilcabamba Ecuador S.America Flowers, Vilcabamba Ecuador South America Bee Life

Help save the bees! Share this!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

Glistening Green Orchid Bee found in Ecuador. Photos and information on its life cycle of this very pretty inquisitive hovering Bee.

Glistening Green Orchid Bee.

Often on walks this glistening blue green (Metallic)bee would hover in front of me. One was since found dead on the window sill in our house. They are quite fast and difficult to take a photo. As one is never prepared for the confrontation.

Description.

The orchard bee (Euglossa Dilemma) varies in colors, being seen as some times metallic glossy green to blue in color.


They grow to about 1.3 cm and their body is a little rounder than a normal bee. Abdomen is pointed at the tail end.


The wing membranes are dark but clear and females have pollen baskets on their legs. Whereas the male bee has an enlarged joint on his hind legs to store substances from plants in a pit like entrance.


The female has a sting and can sting more that once, but will not die. The sting is not as bad as a honey bee.
She is very agile and hovers in the air, but darts between plants quit quickly. Orchid bees have very much longer proboscises in order to gather nectar from flowers with long corolla tubes.

Duties.

Unlike other species, the male bees collect pollen from the orchid flowers and gather the fragrance oil ingredients from the flowers and store it in their back hind leg hollow. The orchid benefits from being well pollinated. He uses this fragrance oils during courtship with the female bees. The male bee fans its wings to release the fragrance to attract the female bees.
The female bee also collects much pollen and nectar, as they have long proboscises.

Nesting.

The female bees build a solitary nest out of propolis, (propolis is made by the bee, with resins and saliva.)which can be made up of 20 cells. An egg is laid and she provides pollen and nectar for the larvae to eat. Then the larvae spins a cocoon and hibernates till spring until it emerges a full grown bee.

Several bees may build nests side by side but hey never share the duties of feeding each others larvae.

Body of a dead orchid bee.

Below picture is showing the pretty colorful bees metallic colors and the hairs on the body.
The large eyes on the side of the head and feelers. Also the hind legs that gather the pollen.

Orchid bees come in an amazing array of shapes and colors. You could call them the jewels of the bee kingdom.

They are great pollinators.

More posts about this bee.

  1. Orchid Bee Collecting Fragrances
  2. Hovering Metallic Green Orchid Bee
  3. Glossy Metallic Green Orchid Bee

Other types of orchid bees.

Orchid bees come in an amazing array of shapes and colors. There are big fuzzy black and yellow Eulaema, bright green Exaerete as long as your finger, and the brilliant, metallic Euglossa in shining blue, green, red, and gold.

Help save the bees! Share this!

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Email

November 19, 2019 · Leave a Comment

Oh hi there 👋 It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome bee & honey related content in your inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Previous Post: « Black Bumblebee on Sunflowers
Next Post: Honey Bee forages wax on Leaves »

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Oh hi there 👋
It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome bee & honey related content in your inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Glossy Metallic Green Orchid Bee

Healthy Honey & Ginger Drink

Metallic Sweat Bees Forage on Roses

Copyright © 2023 · Anchored Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in