This guide is designed to help you identify an unknown bee to genus. It covers the most commonly seen genera–those that beginning bee watchers are most likely to encounter. Before you begin, it might be a good idea to make sure that the insect you want to identify even is a bee – check our page here to review some common bee look-alikes.
This guide is in beta testing. Please be patient with this guide as we work out any issues.
To start, decide which of the following four categories your bee best fits into:
- bumble bees and lookalikes
- smaller longhorn bees
- golden, striped abdomen
- dark, striped abdomen
- dark metallic
- colorful metallic
- black-and-yellow striped
- red
- tiny and black
- slender with a pointed abdomen