What kind of bees are in Arizona? More than 1,300 types. Here's why

It's not often you see a "bee delay" at a baseball game.

But that's exactly what happened at the Arizona Diamondbacks-LA Dodgers game on April 30. A swarm of honeybees decided to make camp on the netting behind home plate at Chase Field.

It became a hero moment for beekeeper Matt Hilton. He even has his own baseball card now.

But Arizona's native bees would never swarm like those honeybees. In fact, Arizona doesn't have any bee species that build a hive or make honey. And that's because the Western Honeybee, also called the European Honeybee, is an invasive species.

Worldwide, there are around 20,000 described bee species. Across the U.S. there are roughly 4,000 known species. And Arizona, more specifically the Sonoran desert, is home to at least 15% of bee species.

"Pretty much anytime you try to do a survey anywhere in Arizona, you find new species all the time compared to any other sampled region on the planet," said Tanner Bland, the Tucson Bee Collaborative program coordinator. "Currently the Sonoran desert seems to be the most biodiverse (bee) region on the planet."

The majority of Arizona's bees are solitary individuals that don't build hives. And they sometimes come in brilliant colors including reds, purples, greens and blues.

Hear all the bee facts in this episode of Valley 101.

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