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- ›Colletinae
Cellophane Bees
Colletes
Colletes (plasterer bees or cellophane bees) is a large genus of smallish and hairy ground-nesting bees of the short-tongued bee family Colletidae. They have an almost worldwide distribution, but occur primarily in the Northern Hemisphere where they are found almost everywhere up to the edge of the Arctic ice.
Plasterer bees were traditionally held to be a very ancient lineage; however, research in the early 2000s revealed their primitive traits to have been simply retained from ancestral bees. As of 2012 there were about 470 described species, and an estimated total around 700. They occur throughout the world except in Antarctica, Australia, Madagascar, and Southeast Asia. There are about 60 species in Europe and about 100 in North America north of Mexico. Due to their breeding habits, they require soils that are somewhat sandy and not too humid; the bulk of their diversity is found in temperate to subtropical Asia, in particular Central Asia. Since their relatives are found mainly in the Americas and Australia, the high diversity of Colletes in Asia is probably secondary and fairly recent, with the genus most likely originating in tropical America perhaps as much as 50 million years ago, and diversifying abundantly in the highly continental climate they found in interior Eurasia.
60 branches of this genus, most-observed first
Colletes inaequalis
complexColletes inaequalis
Ivy Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes hederae
Early Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes cunicularius
Colletes simulans
complexColletes simulans
Colletes compactus
complexColletes compactus
Colletes americanus
complexColletes americanus
Colletes latitarsis
complexColletes latitarsis
Heather Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes succinctus
Colletes cyaneus
complexColletes cyaneus
Davies' Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes daviesanus
Canary Islands Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes dimidiatus
Bare-saddled Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes similis
Morice's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes moricei
Hairy-saddled Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes fodiens
Colletes nudus
complexColletes nudus
Sea Aster Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes halophilus
Northern Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes floralis
Hylaeiform Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes hylaeiformis
Andrews' Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes andrewsi
Alumroot Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes aestivalis
Colletes bicolor
complexColletes bicolor
Slevin's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes slevini
Colletes consors
complexColletes consors
Colletes atripes
complexColletes atripes
Long-faced Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes longifacies
Susanna's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes susannae
Reseda Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes nigricans
Colletes hyalinus
complexColletes hyalinus
Colletes collaris
speciesColletes collaris
Sandhills Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes ultravalidus
Colletes productus
complexColletes productus
Aberrant Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes aberrans
Colletes marginatus
complexColletes marginatus
Kincaid's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes kincaidii
Abeille's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes abeillei
Colletes banksi
speciesColletes banksi
Colletes robertsonii
complexColletes robertsonii
Colletes ciliatus
speciesColletes ciliatus
Colletes nasutus
speciesColletes nasutus
Fuerteventura Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes perezi
Colletes gilvus
complexColletes gilvus
Colletes brimleyi
speciesColletes brimleyi
Colletes titusensis
speciesColletes titusensis
Colletes petropolitanus
complexColletes petropolitanus
Colletes albomaculatus
complexColletes albomaculatus
Colletes acutus
complexColletes acutus
Colletes escalerai
speciesColletes escalerai
Colletes chusmiza
complexColletes chusmiza
Colletes francesae
speciesColletes francesae
Colletes bradleyi
speciesColletes bradleyi
Jankowskyi's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes jankowskyi
Alin's Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes alini
Glittering Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes fulgidus
Colletes caspicus
complexColletes caspicus
Eous Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes eous
Taiwan Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes taiwanensis
Impunctate Cellophane Bee
speciesColletes impunctatus
Colletes eulophi
speciesColletes eulophi
Colletes chengtehensis
speciesColletes chengtehensis
Colletes spilopterus
complexColletes spilopterus
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Colletes in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 127741.