Colletes

Colletes are medium-sized, ground nesting bees. They are covered by dense body hair that is usually orange or brownish and have a slightly conical abdomen. Their strongly convergent compound eyes give their heads a characteristic "heart-like" shape. Several species have uninterrupted abdominal bands of feathered, light-colored hairs. Both sexes look alike, but males are somewhat slimmer and lack the hairy scopa that the females have in the hind legs. Differences between closely related species are often subtle, making morphological identification to lower taxonomic levels sometimes challenging. Females dig their nests underground in light soil and use their short, bilobed tongues to line the inside of their brood cells with a transparent, cellophane-like protective membrane. Unlike other bees, the eggs are attached to the walls of the brood cells and their larval provisions consist of a semi-liquid mixture of pollen and nectar. Despite having a solitary lifestyle, they can occasionally form large nesting aggregations.