Prickly Ceratina

Ceratina acantha · Order: Hymenoptera · Family: Apidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Prickly Ceratina
Photo: Jeff Bartlett, CC BY

Ceratina acantha is a small carpenter bee in the family Apidae. It builds its nests inside dead twigs. The species occurs in Central America and North America.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

Ceratina acantha belongs to the small carpenter bees of the Apidae family.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

These bees make nests in dead twigs.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 10 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Oregon, California, Washington, Utah, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, New Mexico.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Prickly Ceratina photo 3
Photo: Doug Wolfe, CC BY
Prickly Ceratina photo 4
Photo: unknown, CC0
Prickly Ceratina photo 5
Photo: Rachel Lee Harper, CC BY
Prickly Ceratina photo 6
Photo: unknown, CC0

Same family (Apidae)

Western Honey BeeWestern Honey BeeApis melliferaCan stingCommon Eastern Bumble BeeCommon Eastern Bumble BeeBombus impatiensCan stingEastern Carpenter BeeEastern Carpenter BeeXylocopa virginicaCan stingBrown-belted Bumble BeeBrown-belted Bumble BeeBombus griseocollisCommon Carder Bumble BeeCommon Carder Bumble BeeBombus pascuorumBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBuff-tailed Bumble BeeBombus terrestris

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceratina_acantha

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · ITIS · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.