Pollen collecting species

Many cleptoparasitic bees are closely related to, and resemble, their hosts in looks and size. In a few cases where the hosts are social species, the cleptoparasite remains in the host nest and lays many eggs, sometimes even killing the host queen and replacing her. When the cuckoo bee larva hatches it consumes the host larva’s pollen ball, and if the female cleptoparasite has not already done so, kills and eats the host buy honey bees larva. They typically enter the nests of pollen collecting species, and lay their eggs in cells provisioned by the host bee. Females of these bees lack pollen collecting structures and do not construct their own nests. Cleptoparasitic bees, commonly called “cuckoo bees” because their behavior is similar to cuckoo birds, occur in several bee families, though the name is technically best applied to the apid subfamily Nomadinae.