Non-honey bees

Blood bees (genus Sphecodes) owe their name to red colouration of metasoma. They are quite similar in colouration and shape but come in various sizes. Some of them are really small and inconspicuous, measuring about 5 mm. Is that bad? Well, I bet that blood bees would be happy to go unnoticed. They are cuckoo bees and lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species. Of course what is small to human eye, is not necessarily so to the bee host of Sphecodes, so the fight is often inevitable.