Learning to Identify Bees
These guides are meant to help you start learning how to identify the bees you see in and around your community. If you are new to the world of insects, I suggest starting at identifying insects and working your way down the list. The difficulty of identification increases as you scroll down the page, so start near the top and work towards the bees you want to learn to identify.
If you haven't ever identified invertebrates before, start here! A lot of the terminology and features that are used to identify insects from other invertebrates is used to identify important features of different bee types.
Photo credit: "Eastern Carpenter Bee - Xylocopa virginica, Leesylvania State Park, Woodbridge, Virginia" by Judy Gallagher is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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Bees and wasps share many common physical characteristics, so they can be difficult to tell apart! This page will help you learn to identify if the insect you are looking at is a bee or a wasp and it compares pictures of both bees and wasps that are commonly mixed up.
​"Nomada marshamella" by S. Rae is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
