Parasitic Bees

These bees are not looking for food or building their own nest. They use hives and other bees' food. They can be divided into "cleptoparasitic bees" and "social parasites".

Cleptoparasitic bees attack solitary honeycomb hives, and hide their eggs in existing rooms before the nest host lays their own eggs and then closes the rooms. Bee babies can thrive with food stored by the host's bees. The eggs and larvae of female host bees are killed by the parasitic or larval female bees.

The social bees kill the queen of the bees, lay eggs in the host cells, and force host workers to raise their babies. Parasitic female bees do not have a pollen brush or a pollen basket.