An egg is laid on the pollen ball and the lid of the cell sealed with a spiral closure or mud, wax or resin. This is called mass provisioning since the mother bee provides everything the egg will need to grow into a larva, pupate and become a new adult bee. Solitary female bees have no further contact with their offspring. Bees belong to the large insect order Hymenoptera, along with ants and wasps. The name for the order refers to the membranous often clear wings, two fore and two hind wings, these flying insects possess.
Bees are extremely varied.
The little Perdita could sit on the antennae of one of our giant black carpenter bees. They make their living by collecting pollen and nectar from flowers and by excavating nests in the ground or wood, or by finding pre-existing tunnels like beetle burrows in dead trees. Some bees also collect mud, leaves, plant hairs, resins, pebbles or bark for use as building materialsin their often elaborate nests. In the United States alone, we have 3,950 species of native bees. More are being described each year.