Images

Common Milkweed - The primary foodplant in most of the range of the loved-by-all Monarch Butterfly . Also a weed, if you are a wheat farmer, and also something much less common in agricultural landscapes where they dominated in the past. Why? Because we figured out how to create food plants that cannot be killed by herbicides.

Another small Ashmeadiella species (A. aridula) again from Claire Kremen's studies. This one's distributions fills the western states but does not leak into Canada and Mexico. I am sure there are stories to tell here, but I basically know that they are small and nest in holes in wood...often using rosin. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

Here is a bee from the Central Valley of California,part of Claire Kremen's 10 years study of hedgerows as bee repositories in industrial ag lands. Pollen-wise it leans towards composites, and, this is also a bee that can be found all the way to the East Coast... Georgia and North Carolina even. Small so likely often overlooked.

Captured by the butterfly convert Don Harvey in the wilds of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, here is the hunky Anthophora californica captured, as you can see from the pollen after servicing the local flowers. Thank you bees. Picture taken by Joaquin Mogollon.

One of the few species in the genus Anthophora with a strong pollen preference. Its almost solely found on Boraginaceae, especially Alkanna and Anchusa.

A wee little Anthophora. Meet Anthophora flexipes. I don't know much about this species since it lives out West where I don't live, but it is cute and it is an Anthophora. Collected way up the mountains from a burn study in Yosemite National Park by Claire Kremen's bee study group.

Very raggedy picture of Anthophora occidentalis from the Badlands of South Dakota

Introduced species from Japan...now found throughout the Washington D.C. area...very abundant and expected to spread.

Not all bumblebees gather pollen. Some, like this Bombus citrinus, take over the nests of other bumblebee species and use their workers to provision the nests of their young.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

A parasite of other bumblebeeds, B. citrinus, is the most common parasitic species in the East, but, as a parasite this still means it is very uncommon. The tale is simple, this species invades a nest, eliminates queen, and makes workers raise its own young.

A somewhat bedraggled Bombus crotchii from Yolo County, California..."This bee was collected in the California Central Valley in Yolo County for research on small-scale restoration in agricultural areas. Claire Kremen's 10-year study of hedgerows shows the benefits of planting native shrubs and forbs in agricultural areas for native bees.

The giant bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). A denizen of the southern Andes and widely believed to be in decline due to competition and perhaps spread of pathogens with two introduced European bumblebees that have invaded the region. You notice this bee when it flies by. Dramatically orange with yellow highlights on the traditional deep black integument of bumblebees.

The giant bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). A denizen of the southern Andes and widely believed to be in decline due to competition and perhaps spread of pathogens with two introduced European bumblebees that have invaded the region. You notice this bee when it flies by. Dramatically orange with yellow highlights on the traditional deep black integument of bumblebees.

The giant bumblebee (Bombus dahlbomii). A denizen of the southern Andes and widely believed to be in decline due to competition and perhaps spread of pathogens with two introduced European bumblebees that have invaded the region. You notice this bee when it flies by. Dramatically orange with yellow highlights on the traditional deep black integument of bumblebees.

Ah, reaching way back in history now to 2012,,,,not completely satisfied with this shot of B. flavifrons, but it will have to do. From Wyoming, where a number of red butted bumble bees live.

Bombus fraternus. The Southern Plains Bumble Bee. This crisp, handsome and short-faced bee suffers from lack of an adequate publicist. Thought, several other Bumble Bees in its clan, to be in decline from introduced pathogens. It gets little mention in the bee press.

Bombus fraternus - Here is one of the very uncommon bumblebees that are of great concern these days, due to introduced parasites that have caused this species and its sister taxa to crash. Fortunately, they are still around, at least in small numbers.

Check the eyes out on this male Bumble Bee. We already put up a spread of female B. fraternus, but the male has some pretty unique features for bumble bees. For one, the eyes are HUGE, they nearly meet at the top of the head. Only a few other bumbles do that...and the face is extremely short, with the mandibles almost joined to the bottom of the eyes.