Big Bee Bonanza
Help digitize NHM's bee collections and keep bees buzzing with this crowd-sourced community science project
Bee populations have been decreasing in numbers and diversity all over the world. Exactly why is a global mystery–but museum collections like NHM's might have some of the answers.
You can help researchers understand just what's happening to these insects that are so crucial to food production in the human and natural worlds in the Big Bee Bonanza by helping to digitize more than a century's worth of bees. Together, we can help scientists and policymakers get the data they need to keep bees buzzing. We'll need helpers starting up again in March 2023!
Explore some of the incredible bee specimens from NHM's Entomology Collection below!
Image by Kelsey Bailey
Apis mellifera is the western or European honey bee we all know. The most common honey bee, this non-native species is probably responsible for your honey, but there are 1,600 species of native bees found in California.
Image by Kelsey Bailey
Sweat bees in the Halictidae family like the one pictured above are named for their tendency to land on our skin for some delicious, mineral-rich sweat. This group of bees carry pollen on their hind legs and sometimes on the underside of their abdomens.
Image by Kelsey Bailey
Mason bees like this beautiful blue Osmia lignaria are named for the mud walls they erect between their egg chambers. They use tubes like the Bee Hotel in NHM's Nature Garden to lay their eggs. These bees gather pollen from local flowers as close to their nests as possible, unlike honeybees that range for miles.
Image by Kelsey Bailey
The impressive antennae like this from the genus Melissodes gives this species their common name: long-horned bees. The males use their impressive headgear to get female attention. While both males and females have hairy legs, only the females have scopae, the branched hairs needed to carry pollen.
