The family Apidae is a highly variable family of bees that includes some of the largest bees in the state within the genus Bombus (bumble bees) and Xylocopa (carpenter bees), as well as many genera of cleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bees including Brachymelecta, Epeolus, Holcopasites, Neolarra, Nomada, and Triepeolus. Bees in this family nest in a variety of locations including in or on the ground, in wood, and in plant stems or cavities in other natural substrates. 

The sociality of the bee genera and species in this family is also highly variable; for example, Bombus and Apis having social nests and the majority of the remaining genera having solitary nests. Bombus and Apis females have pollen baskets (corbiculae), an enlarged and concave-shaped hind leg tibia used for transporting pollen loads. However, the other ground-nesting bee females in the family Apidae within the genera Anthophora, Epimelissodes, Eucera, Melissodes, and Xenoglossa are robustly shaped and have lengthy pollen-collecting hairs (scopae) on their hind leg tibiae and basitarsi; males have long antennae (long-horned). 

The family Apidae also includes a small number of pollen-collecting specialists (oligolectic bees), many of which are active in the summer or early autumn specializing on pollen from plants in the family Asteraceae.