Pollinators of

The vibrant gardens of The Battery attract an abundance of pollinators throughout the warm season, including some you may not expect! Use this guide to identify and learn more about some of our most common flower pollinators, and check out our Butterflies of The Battery guide to see even more pollinator examples. Please remember to follow all social distancing guidelines while at The Battery. We hope you enjoy your visit!

Bees

Sweat Bees Western Honey Bee Common Eastern Bumble Bee Agapostemon spp. Apis mellifera Bombus impatiens The honey bee was likely first Sweat bees are native to the Americas, Bumble bees are social bees, living in domesticated in Egypt more than 5,000 and are recognizable by their metallic colonies that include a Queen, worker years ago, and has since spread across green color. All species of Agapostemon bees, and male bees. Bumble bee the globe. Honey bees collect flower dig tunnel nests in bare patches of colonies live in underground nests that to convert to honey for long-term ground, where they lay their eggs. house more than 450 individuals. storage, and pollen to feed to their young.

Spurred Ceratina Flat-tailed Leaf-cutter Bee Eastern Carpenter Bee Ceratina calcarata Megachile mendica Xylocopa virginica

Spurred ceratinas are solitary bees. Leaf-cutter bees will use their strong Eastern carpenter bees are similar in Rather than dig underground nests or mandibles to cut out sections of leaves size to bumble bees, but their abdomens build hives, they lay their eggs in hollow to line the egg cells in their nests. They are smooth and glossy rather than hairy. plant stems, leaving pollen inside for the build these nests in the hollow centers of They carve tunnel nests out of wood, and larvae to eat once they hatch. plant stems. each generation only lives for one year.

See more on the next page... , Beetles, , European Paper Great Black Digger Wasp and others dominula Sphex pensylvanicus The not only pollinates As a solitary wasp, the great black digger flowers; it also eats bugs like aphids that wasp does not display the kind of damage agricultural crops, and in some aggressive behavior common in areas it feeds on fruit crops themselves. or other wasps that nest in Paper wasps earn their name by building colonies. This wasp paralyzes nests out of wood fibers and saliva. grasshoppers to feed to its larvae.

Flower Longhorn Beetles European Drone Blow Flies Lepturinae subfamily Eristalis tenax Calliphoridae family More than 1300 species make up the The drone fly demonstrates an incredible Some plants depend on flies, rather than subfamily Lepturinae, and all feed on example of biomimicry: though E. tenax bees, for pollination. The pawpaw tree, pollen and nectar as their primary food cannot sting, evolution has led the a native fruit tree of , sources as adults. They are likely not species to look similar to the stinging produces flowers that smell slightly as effective at pollination as bees, which honey bee, thereby discouraging rotten in order to attract blow fly have more hairs to catch pollen grains. . pollinators.

Margined Calligrapher Hairy Flower Scarabs Common House Mosquito Toxomerus marginatus Trichiotinus spp. Culex pipiens

The margined calligrapher is a member The eight species of Trichiotinus beetles The primary food source for adult of the family Syrphidae, also called are all native to North America, and eat mosquitos is nectar—the females only hoverflies. These flies will hover in place flower pollen as a primary food source. draw blood when preparing to lay eggs. around flowers before descending to feed Pollen grains will stick to the many hairs Many adult mosquitos on their search for on the nectar and pollen within. on their bodies and travel with the beetles nectar will pollinate small green, white, to different flowers. and yellow flowers.

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