White-jawed yellow-face bee, Hylaeus confusus, a small near-hairless black bee with pale facial markings — *Hylaeus confusus*, white-jawed yellow-face bee. portioid, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Hylaeus confusus Yellow-face beeSummer-flyingCavity-nestingSouthern Britain

UK Bee Species

White-jawed Yellow-face Bee (Hylaeus confusus)

Hylaeus confusus Nylander, 1852 · subgenus Hylaeus · family Colletidae

The white-jawed yellow-face bee is a small, almost hairless black bee marked with pale yellow on the face, more wasp than bee at first glance. Like all yellow-face bees it carries pollen internally rather than on a brush, and nests in hollow stems and dead wood. It is locally common across the southern half of Britain.

Quick facts

Common name

White-jawed yellow-face bee

Scientific name

Hylaeus confusus

Authority

Nylander, 1852

Family

Colletidae

UK status

Locally common in southern Britain

Size

Small, wasp-like

Active

Late May to September

Nesting

Hollow stems, dead wood, old galls

Cells

Lined with cellophane-like secretion

Forage

Polylectic, no strong preference

Pollen carried

Internally, in the crop

Temperament

Harmless, essentially never stings

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Colletidae
Genus	Hylaeus
Subgenus	Hylaeus
Species	Hylaeus confusus

A wasp-like bee with a masked face

Yellow-face bees, genus Hylaeus, are among the least bee-like of bees: small, shiny, nearly hairless and black, with pale yellow or white markings on the face that give the group its other name, the masked bees.^[3] Because they lack an external pollen brush, they can look more like slender black wasps than bees.^[3] See where they sit among the world's bee families in the World Bee Atlas.

The white-jawed yellow-face bee is one of a dozen British Hylaeus species^[5] and closely resembles its scarcer relative H. incongruus. The two are best separated on the facial markings: in the female white-jawed yellow-face bee the yellow face spots are smaller and well separated from the antennal sockets, and the head is more rounded in front view.^[1]

One of a difficult dozen

With around twelve British species, most small and dark, Hylaeus is a genus where a clear view of the face, thorax and legs is usually needed for a confident name, and a test key from BWARS is the standard tool.^[3] Compare the closely related common yellow-face bee.

Small, black and shining, with a pale mask on the face: at a glance, more wasp than bee.

Where it lives and what it visits

The white-jawed yellow-face bee is locally common across the southern half of Britain and is especially frequent in the band between Oxford and Cambridge, becoming patchier and scarcer further north, though it reaches as far as the Inverness area.^[1]^[4] In Ireland it is perhaps the commonest of the four Hylaeus species that occur there.^[2] It exploits a wide range of habitats, from open deciduous woodland and its rides and clearings to chalk grassland, heaths, fens and the coast, and takes readily to gardens.^[2] It is not regarded as scarce or threatened.^[2]

It is polylectic, visiting a variety of flowers with no obvious preference.^[1] Adults fly from late May to the end of September.^[2]

12 species

The white-jawed yellow-face bee is one of roughly a dozen Hylaeus species in Britain, most small, black and hard to tell apart.^[3]

Pollen on the inside

What most sets Hylaeus apart is how it carries pollen. With no external brush, the female swallows a mixture of pollen and nectar and carries it internally in her crop, then regurgitates it into the nest.^[3] She nests in ready-made cavities, hollow plant stems, burrows in dead wood and even old oak galls, and lines the cells with a thin, waterproof, cellophane-like secretion that gives the family Colletidae its name of plasterer bees.^[1]^[3]

Carried within

Instead of a pollen brush, the white-jawed yellow-face bee swallows its pollen and carries it home inside its body.^[3]

One brood or two?

In Britain the white-jawed yellow-face bee is presumed to be univoltine, with a single generation on the wing from late May to September. In France it is reported to be bivoltine, with separate spring and autumn broods; whether this also happens in Britain has not been confirmed.^[2]

Why it matters

Small, unfussy and widespread, the white-jawed yellow-face bee is a quiet generalist pollinator of woodland edges, grassland and gardens through the summer. Because it nests in hollow stems and dead wood, it is one of the bees that benefits when gardeners leave old bramble and hogweed stems standing and keep a little dead wood in place, rather than tidying every cavity away.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I identify a white-jawed yellow-face bee?

Look for a small, shiny, nearly hairless black bee with pale yellow markings on the face, flying from early summer into autumn. It is very wasp-like. Separating it from the scarcer Hylaeus incongruus relies on the facial markings, and confident identification usually needs good close-up photos of the face.

What is a yellow-face bee?

Yellow-face or masked bees are small, dark, almost hairless bees in the genus Hylaeus, family Colletidae. They carry pollen internally rather than on a brush, and line their nest cells with a waterproof, cellophane-like secretion.

When is the white-jawed yellow-face bee active?

Adults fly from late May to the end of September. In Britain it is presumed to raise a single generation a year, though in France it is reported to have two broods.

Where does it nest?

In ready-made cavities: hollow plant stems, burrows in dead wood and even old oak galls. Leaving standing dead stems and a little dead wood in the garden gives it somewhere to nest.

What flowers does it visit?

It is a generalist, visiting a wide range of flowers with no strong preference. That flexibility is part of why it is so widespread.

How does it carry pollen without a pollen brush?

Unlike most bees, yellow-face bees have no external pollen brush. The female swallows a mix of pollen and nectar and carries it internally in her crop, then brings it back up inside the nest cell to provision her young.

Do white-jawed yellow-face bees sting?

For practical purposes, no. They are tiny, solitary and harmless, with no colony to defend, and are not a bee anyone need worry about.

Does the white-jawed yellow-face bee make honey?

No. Each female provisions only her own cells and stores no surplus. Only the honeybee makes honey in quantity. Compare the bee families in the World Bee Atlas.

Related species

Sources & references

Falk, S. Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland, Bloomsbury, and the Steven Falk Flickr collection: Hylaeus confusus (facial markings, separation from H. incongruus, distribution, flight period, nesting).
BWARS (Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society). Species account: Hylaeus confusus (Nylander, 1852): trans-Palaearctic distribution, habitats, univoltine or bivoltine flight, conservation status and nesting. bwars.com.
BWARS genus notes and Falk, S. (2015): Hylaeus biology, internal pollen transport, cellophane-lined cells, roughly twelve British species, and the BWARS test key.
WildBristol / Bristol Bees, Wasps & Ants group. White-jawed Yellow-face Bee: distribution and flight period. wildbristol.uk.
NBN Atlas / GBIF Secretariat. Hylaeus confusus Nylander, 1852: taxonomy and UK distribution. nbnatlas.org; gbif.org.

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