11 Types of Bees in Maryland: A Field Guide to Backyard Pollinators
October 5, 2026
A honey bee working a coneflower gets most of the attention in a Maryland backyard, but it represents a tiny fraction of the state’s actual bee diversity. Behind that one familiar species is a much larger cast of native pollinators quietly doing the heavy lifting for the region’s wildflowers, orchards, and vegetable gardens.
Learning the different types of bees in Maryland is the first step toward telling a beneficial pollinator apart from a look-alike wasp — and toward understanding why so many of these insects deserve a little more backyard hospitality.
Maryland’s bee community is built around five core families: Apidae, Halictidae, Andrenidae, Megachilidae, and Colletidae. Maryland’s Wild Acres program notes that these families include Apidae (Honey Bees, Bumble Bees and allies), Halictidae (Sweat Bees), Andrenidae (Miner Bees), Megachilidae (Leaf-cutter Bees, Mason Bees and allies) and Colletidae (Plasterer Bees).
Within those five families, Maryland is home to around 400 different species of native bees, though newer surveys push that figure even higher. This guide walks through 11 of the most recognizable groups, covering how to identify them, where they nest, and why each one matters to the state’s ecosystems.
Important Note: Bee counts for Maryland vary by source and survey year. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources cites roughly 400 species, while a 2024 Maryland naturalist blog put the number at over 440 species of bees that have been documented in Maryland. The discrepancy reflects ongoing fieldwork rather than a shrinking or growing population — researchers simply keep finding more species as sampling expands.
1. Honey Bee
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the species most people picture when they hear the word “bee,” yet it is not actually native to Maryland. Honey bees were introduced from Europe and now assist our native bees and other pollinators with the task of pollinating flowering plants. The University of Maryland Extension describes them as non-native bees that are used for pollination and production of honey and wax, and they are social insects that live in large colonies.
Despite their reputation as champion pollinators, honey bees are not always the most effective choice for every plant. Surprisingly, honey bees are not effective pollinators for many native plants like cherries, blueberries and cranberries. That gap is exactly where Maryland’s native solitary bees, several of which appear later in this list, step in to do work the honey bee cannot. Readers curious about how bees compare to other stinging insects can also check this guide to insects that look like bees for side-by-side identification tips.
2. Carpenter Bee
Large carpenter bees are some of the biggest and noisiest pollinators in a Maryland backyard, often mistaken for bumble bees because of their bulky, fuzzy build. Bees come in all colors, shapes and sizes from the large carpenter bees to the tiny Perdita minima, and the Xylocopa virginica carpenter bee common to the mid-Atlantic is easily spotted by its shiny, hairless black abdomen — a detail that separates it at a glance from the fuzzy-bottomed bumble bee.
Unlike ground nesters, carpenter bees build their homes by tunneling directly into wood. Carpenter bees burrow into wood to nest, which is why porch railings, deck rails, and untreated eaves sometimes show small, perfectly round entry holes. The good news for homeowners is that carpenter bees are important pollinators, they are not aggressive, and controlling them is not necessary unless they are damaging wooden structures. Because their tunneling habit gets confused with wood-boring ants, it helps to compare notes with this guide to types of ants in Maryland before assuming an infestation.
Pro Tip: If a carpenter bee is hovering aggressively near a person’s head, it is almost always a territorial male — and males have no stinger, so the display is bluff rather than threat.
3. Bumble Bee
Bumble bees (genus Bombus) are the round, fuzzy generalists that stay active from early spring through fall, working flowers even on cool or cloudy days when other pollinators stay hidden. Bumble bees are robust with black bodies and dense hair covering most of the body, which helps them regulate temperature during chilly Maryland mornings.
Unlike the solitary bees on this list, bumble bees form small annual colonies. They are round-bodied and have black-and-yellow hair covering their bodies, and are known to be some of the friendliest bees, typically stinging only if provoked. Rather than building elaborate hives, bumblebees are social ground-nesters that prefer building loose, small colonies in dark, insulated places, typically setting up their hives at or below ground level using old rodent burrows, thick compost piles, or spaces beneath raised sheds. Gardeners hoping to compare regional variation might also enjoy this look at bumble bee species in Massachusetts, where several of the same species overlap with Maryland’s populations.
4. Sweat Bee (Halictid Bee)
Sweat bees earn their name honestly: some species are attracted to salt in sweat, so a metallic-looking bee landing on bare skin during a humid Maryland summer is very likely a member of the Halictidae family. Many species in this group flash a brilliant metallic green or blue sheen that makes them easy to spot even at a distance.
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center highlighted this diversity in a 2022 talk on Maryland’s native bees, describing species such as the metallic-green sweat bee Augochloropsis metallica and noting that there are roughly 450 species of bees in Maryland. Sweat bees range from tiny, easily overlooked insects to conspicuously colorful fliers, and most nest alone in small tunnels dug into bare or sparsely vegetated soil. For comparison with a neighboring state’s sweat bee populations, see this overview of bees found in New York.
5. Mining Bee (Andrenid Bee)
Mining bees, or Andrenid bees, are among the earliest pollinators active each year and represent one of the largest groups of ground-nesting bees in the state. They are typically black with light banding, and Maryland naturalist Kerry Wixted notes that ground-nesting bees encompass the majority of bee species found in Maryland, and are mostly solitary nesters meaning that they do not form social colonies with division of labor.
Timing matters for spotting this group. Most Andrenids in Maryland will be active April through June, and males in the Andrena genus often sport a distinct mustache of dense hairs below their antennae. Because they aggregate in loose colonies on sunny, sandy patches of lawn, homeowners sometimes mistake a cluster of individual mining bee burrows for a single aggressive nest, when in fact while the majority of ground-nesting bees are solitary, they often will aggregate in locations that have prime habitat. Readers in the Great Lakes region can find a similar breakdown in this guide to bee species in Michigan.
6. Leafcutter Bee
Leafcutter bees belong to the Megachilidae family, the same group that includes mason bees, and get their name from a distinctive nesting habit: females snip smooth, circular pieces from leaves to line their nest cells. Rather than digging their own tunnels, masons and leafcutters nest in holes, with many of these species taking advantage of holes made by other insects like beetles to construct their nests.
A garden rose or redbud leaf with neat, round notches cut from the edges is one of the clearest signs a leafcutter bee is active nearby — the damage looks alarming but rarely affects the plant’s health. These solitary bees carry pollen on the underside of their abdomen rather than on their legs, giving them a slightly different silhouette from bumble bees and honey bees. Gardeners in the Southeast can compare notes with this guide to bees found in South Carolina, where leafcutter species overlap significantly with Maryland’s populations.
7. Mason Bee
Mason bees (genus Osmia) are early-spring specialists prized by orchard growers for their efficient pollination habits. Mason bees are also known as orchard bees, and unlike the European honeybee, native mason bees carry pollen on their bellies and nest in holes.
Their name comes directly from their construction method. According to Maryland’s DNR Bee-Friendly Backyards guide, these bees get their common name from using clay soil to make chambers in their nest holes, and mason bees are usually metallic green or blue in color, though many also are duller shades of black. Mason bees also tend to be the first pollinators active each year — one regional field guide notes that observers should look for Mason Bees in early spring, when the weather is still chilly, since they’re usually one of the first bees to become active after winter. Anyone building a native bee house should avoid cedar or treated lumber, since both can be toxic to nesting bees. Those exploring native bee options in the Pacific Northwest may also want this guide to bee species in Oregon.
8. Plasterer Bee (Cellophane/Polyester Bee)
Plasterer bees belong to the Colletidae family and carry several nicknames tied to their unusual nest-building habit. As Kerry Wixted explains, Colletid bees have multiple monikers — you might hear them referred to as plasterer bees, cellophane bees, and/or polyester bees because the females line their brood cells with a cellophane-like substance that is actually one of the polyesters.
Maryland hosts a healthy variety of this family: twenty-nine species of Colletid bees have been documented in Maryland, with the most commonly reported ground-nesting Colletid being the Rufous-backed Cellophane Bee (Colletes thoracicus) followed by the Unequal Cellophane Bee (Colletes inaequalis). Timing differs between the two: the Unequal Cellophane Bee is one of the earlier species to become active, with some reports of them being spotted in late January and February in Maryland, though their most active period is late March into April. Plasterer bees are also unusually active at dusk, since polyester bees are crepuscular, meaning they are most active during twilight hours, and can be spotted at dusk during the summer months, flying from flower to flower and gathering pollen. Readers comparing western populations can check this guide to bee species in Colorado.
9. Masked Bee
Masked bees (genus Hylaeus) are small enough to be overlooked entirely, and their build often fools even experienced gardeners into assuming they’ve spotted a wasp. These species are small and matte black, with white and yellow markings on the face arranged like a mask and on the legs.
The confusion with wasps runs deeper than color alone. Because of their hairless, elongated bodies, many people confuse Masked Bees with a type of wasp, and the fact that Masked Bees don’t have a carrying pouch for pollen enhances their resemblance to wasps. Instead, they carry pollen internally and regurgitate it to feed their young — a trait shared with no other bee family in Maryland. This unusual biology has made the group remarkably successful worldwide, since species of Masked Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica. Anyone unsure whether they’re looking at a bee or a wasp should compare notes with this field guide to insects that look like bees.
10. Southeastern Blueberry Bee
The southeastern blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa) is one of Maryland’s most economically important native pollinators despite being active for only a few weeks each year. According to the Maryland Biodiversity Project, Habropoda laboriosa, the southeastern blueberry bee, is a bee in the family Apidae, and it has been documented in Queen Anne’s, Prince George’s, and Worcester counties.
This species has built its entire life cycle around one crop. Research published through the University of Florida’s EDIS journal confirms it is found throughout the US Southeast but also north to New Jersey and west into Illinois and Mississippi, placing Maryland near the northern edge of its range. Its specialty is buzz pollination: it vibrates against blueberry flowers to shake pollen loose far more effectively than a honey bee can manage, and it is regarded as the most efficient pollinator of southern rabbit-eye blueberries, because the flowers require buzz pollination.
Key Insight: The southeastern blueberry bee is only active for three to five weeks each spring, timed to coincide with blueberry bloom, yet a single bee can generate an estimated $20 in pollination value during that short window — a figure drawn from genomic and pollination-efficiency research on the species.
11. Cuckoo Bee
Cuckoo bees close out this list as the outliers of the group — bees that don’t build nests, collect pollen, or raise their own young. Just about all bee species build their own nests aside from Cuckoo bees which lay their eggs in the nests made by others. Several genera fill this role in Maryland, including Nomada, whose slender, wasp-like bodies often lead to misidentification.
Their lifestyle is a textbook case of brood parasitism. Bees in this species group are cleptoparasitic, meaning they lay a single egg in the nest of other bees, and once the egg hatches, the parasitic bee kills all other larva and eats their pollen stores. Coloring varies widely across the group, since their coloring varies so widely that it’s hard to tell what type of insect you’re looking at without careful observation, with some black and white striped, while others are mainly black with red bands. Even specialist pollinators aren’t safe from this behavior — the southeastern blueberry bee described above is itself targeted by cuckoo bees in the genus Melecta, which lay eggs in host nests where the larvae consume the host’s pollen provisions.
Together, these 11 groups only begin to sketch out Maryland’s full bee community, but they cover the species a backyard observer is most likely to encounter across a typical growing season. Recognizing the difference between a wood-boring carpenter bee, a ground-nesting mining bee, and a nest-raiding cuckoo bee makes it far easier to appreciate why leaving a patch of bare soil, an old stump, or a few hollow stems can do more for local pollinators than any store-bought bee house. For a broader look at how these species fit into the wider insect world, the guide to different types of bees is a useful next stop, as is this overview of beetles found in Maryland for readers curious about the state’s other pollinating and wood-boring insects.