Photo by Karine Aigner kaigner | When we think of bees and the efforts to save them, we often think of the honeybee. Honeybees were brought to America in the 1600s to help pollinate crops and to make honey. When the “orchard” the honeybees were brought in to pollinate stops blooming, they will sometimes resort to native landscapes, often outcompeting native bees for food. Native bees, some of them habitat specialists, are often overlooked, and possibly even more critical than their imported cousins. Last spring in South Texas, I met Diadasia rinconis, aka the cactus bee (or chimney bee, as some call it). Cactus bees are ground-nesters and pollen specialists, and I spent days watching females excavating their individual burrows, leaving small, volcanic-looking mounds. At the end of her tunnel, the bee digs out several rooms and lays a single egg on a wad of pollen in each. Weeks later, her new brood emerges. Male bees, which have been patiently waiting in blooming flowers, descend. Th...