carder bees

Noun

carder bee (countable and uncountable, plural carder bees)

1. Common 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. Common 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 .
   • 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...
3. In 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
   • 1979 S.H Skaife. Revised by John Ledger: African Insect Life. →ISBN
     The little carder bees of the genus Immanthidium also belong to the Megachilidae. They are mostly black with white markings on the abdomen, and with a white pollen brush on the underside of the abdomen. In some species the males...