carder bee

plural carder bees

1. countableuncountablebiologyCommon name for any species of bee in the genus Bombus or in the family Wikipedia:Megachilidae, that collects plant fibre and processes it for nesting material, by activities resembling the carding of fibre.
2. countableuncountablebiologyCommon name mainly applied to some Bombus species in the northern hemisphere, where they occur widely and are the most familiar species of bees that exhibit carding activity in their nest building, rather than genera such as Anthidium in the Megachilidae, some of which occur in the Northern hemisphere as well and similarly exhibit carding activity .

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   1923 A.D.IMMS A GENERAL TEXTBOOK OF ENTOMOLOGY Other Bombi, known as carder bees, form surface nests hidden away among grass, ivy or other herbage. They derive their name from their habit of collecting moss and other material used in nest formation and plaiting it with the aid of their legs and mandibles. Having formed the nest the next act of the queen is to collect a mass of pollen which is formed into a paste. Upon the top of this substance she constructs a circular wall of wax and, in the cell thus formed, she lays her first batch of eggs, capping the latter over with a covering of wax.

3. countableuncountablebiologyIn the southern hemisphere, where Bombus species occur only exceptionally, the common name most familiarly applied to species of bees that exhibit carding activity in their nest building, and are members of genera in the Megachilidae, such as Anthidium, Immanthidium and Afranthidium