We saw some amazing bees in Costa Rica between December 2024 – February 2025. They have over 700 species, but unfortunately due to wet conditions and colder than average temperatures in some areas, and the fact that in the jungle all the flowers are at the top of the tree canopy, we didn’t see a huge number. But those we did see included:
Metallic green orchid bee (Euglossa) collecting fragrance from a patch of Peace Lilies (Spathiphyllum canniflium) in a famous botanical gardens. The bee is a male collecting fragrance from the plant with which he will woo a female bee. He stores the fragrant oils inside his hind legs and disperses them with his wings during courtship. And the females are seduced by the wafts of perfume, or just impressed by how many different scents the male has managed to collect. No one knows for sure. This means, that unlike males in most bee groups, make orchid bees are important pollinators when they are collecting the fragrances. There are some 40 species of Euglossa in Costa Rica. We were hoping to see more green ones, and metallic blue, red, purple and copper ones. They are around 10-15mm long, so easy to see. Unfortunately the only other ones we saw were at the University of Costa Rica bee collection.
Eulaema cingulata – until I visited Costa Rica I thought all orchid bees were small and metallic coloured, and only foraged on orchids. But they can also be big and fluffy like this one below which is around 28mm long, and looks like a bumblebee with a long body and collects pollen in baskets on its hind legs. Its collecting fragrance from the Peace Lily and pollen and nectar from Stachytarpheta frantzil, a purple flower popular with all pollinators including humming birds.
Mesoamerican bumblebee (Bombus ephippiatus), is one of only seven bumblebee species in Costa Rica. They can only live in the country’s cooler mountainous areas (above 1600 metres). They nest underground in abandoned rodent nests like UK bumblebees, which is perhaps why we saw this one is on the ground. She is the size of a Buff-tailed bumblebee, but looks like she is wearing fluffy, cream-coloured shoulder pads.
Tetragonisca angustula are one of 54 species of stingless bee in Costa Rica. They live in colonies like honeybees – but only about 10,000 of them – and make wax and honey. They don’t sting, but if threatened can bite with their mandibles. Some species are more aggressive than others. Luckily these little orange bees, 4mm long, were harmless as their nest was in the wall cavity of a cabin where we were staying for a week. They made the tube entrance to the nest from resin and wax. It was fascinating to watch them building and adapting it.
Lemon bees (Lestrimelita) are a species of 6mm long, glossy black, stingless bee that rob pollen from other stingless colonies. They get their name from the citrus smell they emit. When they are plundering a nest they release chemicals that overcome the host colony. Their own nest is an odd, rather ugly, irregular structure of wax and resin that sticks out of a tree cavity. These bees can be quite aggressive if people come too near to the entrance of their nest.
Centris bees number around 250 species in Costa Rica. We saw two: one, which hovered and looked similar to a Hairy-footed flower bee, making a nest in a wooden bee hotel; the other which we think is a Centris flavofasciata was making a nest in the sand on a beach. She reminded me of a Pantaloon bee (Dasypoda hirtipes) as she had the same oversized brushes on her hind legs.
Many thanks to the authors of Bees of Costa Rica for teaching us about the the country’s rich bee biodiversity. In particular, Prof Paul Hanson (pictured in blue shirt below) for showing us the bee collection at the University of Costa Rica.
And Mariana Acuna Cordero (below left) for meeting us in San Jose and helping to identify many of the bees we saw during our travels, and Gordon W Frankie, professor emeritus at the University of California in Berkeley, (second left) who put me and Brian in touch with Paul and Mariana and who we were lucky enough to meet by chance with Mariana at the incredibly hot Palo Verde National Park and research station the end of our travels.
