BC Bee Atlas

BC Bee Atlas at a glance

The BC Bee Atlas is the flagship project of the Native Bee Society of BC. It empowers British Columbian community scientists to produce biodiversity data and make amazing discoveries about the province's wild bees and diverse flora. Online education and data management are supported by the Oregon State University Extension Service Master Melittologist Program.

The BC Bee Atlas began in 2021 as a pilot program, with a full program running since 2024.
We now have more than 85 Master Melittologists across the province.
Over 7,400 bee specimens and associated plants have been sampled to date with more than 5,000 bees identified to species. The Bee Atlas has identified more than 175 different species of bees thus far, with additional specimens awaiting identification. Bees from 38 genera, and all six of the bee families known in BC are represented.
BC Bee Atlas data is live managed on Ecdysis and shared annually with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Bee Atlas Update - 2024 Data

BC Bee Atlas 2024-25 Report

During 2024, Bee Atlas volunteers collected bees in 12 regional districts across the province between March and November.

Over 116 survey days, 2,552 specimens were collected from six bee families, including 35 genera, and 136 bee species. Collections were made on 130 genera of plants from 39 different plant families. Plants from the Asteraceae family attracted the greatest bee diversity.

Bee Atlas volunteers collected 18 blue-listed species in BC (at risk and considered to be of special concern), contributing to increased understanding of their populations.

Volunteers contributed to tracking 11 non-native bee species, including species never before recorded in the province.

39 bee species known to have specialist plant relationships were documented.

Data collected during 2025 is currently being identified.

Yellow loosestrife bee (Macropis nuda)

Globe mallow bee (Diadasia diminuta)

Important findings

Rarely seen native BC bees

All blue shortface bee (Dufourea holocyanea), specialized on snowberry
Biastes, a genus of cuckoo bees belonging to the Apidae family
The yellow loosestrife bee (Macropis nuda), specialized on an oil producing plant (Lysimachia ciliata)
The globe mallow bee (Diadasia diminuta), a cactus bee that specializes on globe mallow

Introduced species from four different bee families

Apidae:

Common eastern bumblebee (Bombus impatiens)

Colletidae:

Punctate masked bee (Hylaeus punctatus)

Halictidae:

Lassioglossum buccale

Megachilidae:

European woolcarder bee (Anthidium manacatum)

Oblong woolcarder bee (Anthidium oblongatum)

Sleepy scissor bee (Chelostoma florisomne) - A new record for North America!

Alfalfa leafcutting bee (Megachile rotundata)

European mason bee (Osmia cornuta)

BC Bee Atlas Data Summary - 2024

Specimens were collected by volunteer Master Melittologists who hand-netted bees from flowers. Bee specimens were retained, pinned, labelled, and submitted to the BC Bee Atlas for identification. The flowers that bees were collected on were photographically documented using the citizen science platform iNaturalist, to produce bee-plant association records. Bee specimens collected from a single species of plant on a single day comprised one sampling event.

Bee surveying

Regional districts

Survey locations

BC regional districts map - Wikipedia.png

Bee diversity

The five most frequently collected species were Bombus flavifrons (196 specimens), Bombus vancouverensis (168), Bombus melanopygus (80), Agapostemon subtilior (73), and Halictus tripartitus (71), comprising 23% of all specimens collected. Just one specimen was collected for 32 of the 136 species identified.

Plant associations

In 2024, Bee Atlas volunteers collected 1975 bee plant association records via iNaturalist (note some bees specimens do not have an associated plant observation). Bees were collected on plants from 40 plant families, comprising 130 plant genera and 141 plant species. The 10 plant families and genera where the greatest diversity of bees were collected are shown here.

Note: Grindelia, Gaillardia, Leucanthmum, Centuarea, Solidago, Achillea, and Cirsium are all in the plant family Asteraceae. Phacelia belongs in Boraginaceae, Trifolium belongs in Fabaceae, and Rubus belongs in Rosaceae

Species at Risk

The provincial Conservation Status Ranks categorize the risk of species disappearing.

Based on rank, species are assigned to red, blue and yellow lists that help identify species that are or may become endangered or threatened (BC Conservation Data Centre, accessed Dec 2025). Species with insufficient data for ranking are categorized as Unrankable.

Red list - species that are extirpated (locally extinct), endangered, or threatened.
Blue list - species that are at risk and considered to be of special concern.
Yellow list - species that are apparently secure and not at risk of extinction.

There are currently three species on the red list Bombus bohemicus, Bombus suckleyi, and Dufourea dilatipes. Bee Atlas volunteers have yet to collect these species. However, 18 of 43 species on the Blue List were collected in 2024.

Non-native species

Bee Atlas volunteers collected 222 bee specimens that are not native in BC, comprising 11 of 16 currently known non-native species.

Specialist species

Specialist bees may forage on just one or two species of plants (narrow oligolecty), while others forage on multiple species often from within a single plant family (broad oligolecty). Thirty three bee species known to be specialists were collected in 2024 (list developed with reference to Jarrod Fowler’s work on pollen specialist bees).