How do *Hylaeus* bees transport pollen differently from more familiar bee species?

Mixing it wet with nectar and carrying the mixture in their crops

The Yellow-faced Bees exhibit a considerably more ancestral method for handling pollen compared to bees like honeybees or bumblebees. Instead of carrying dry pollen that adheres to specialized structures, such as the corbiculae (pollen baskets) found on the legs of many other bee species, *Hylaeus* bees collect pollen while it is still wet with nectar. This pollen-nectar mixture is then stored internally within the bee's crop, the same digestive organ used to transport liquids like plain nectar or water. Upon returning to the nest, the bee regurgitates this liquid food mixture to provision its developing larvae. This trait suggests an early divergence in bee evolution before the specialized adaptations for dry pollen collection became dominant in other lineages.