Images

Nomia foxii. Check out the pearlescent bands on the abdomen. If you see something like that in North America it is going to be a bee in the genus Nomia. This is a western species. Captured in Hidalgo County, in NM by either Don Harvey or Tim McMahon our records are incomplete to the collector. Picture by Sydney Price.

From Kenya comes yet another Nomia with modifications to the basic bee format. You can see that like other Nomia this male has expanded leg segments, but the fabulous thing here are the dangling modified heart-shaped last segment of the antenna. Male bee antennae are modified quite frequently in the bee world, but this is one of the more extravagant.

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

A male Nomia from Thailand, note the corkscrewed antennae and the greatly expanded leg segments (presumably useful in mating at nest aggregations).

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

White boots on this, our darkest Eastern Melissodes. The most common species, found in gardens as well as parklands. Uses quite a range of plants compared to the more composite oriented other species. Photography by Kelly Graninger.

From the tip of Florida comes Melissodes communis. As a whole, Melissodes is almost always a composite specialist of some kind. This species is found very commonly throughout the South and this particular specimen comes from Biscayne National Park at the tip of Florida. Picture by Sierra Williams and Shopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

Melissodes communis, Biscayne National Park, Florida

Ironweed specialist. Well at least the female is a specialist in that she feeds here babies the bright white pollen of this group of plants. If you plant Ironweed in your garden Melissodes denticulatus will show up they are that common (ironweed is common too).

Range Jumper. This range jumper jumped from Illinois to Virginia. There are no records in between. How odd....this is a rare bee in its limited range in the Midwest and to find it all the way in the Mountains of Virginia seems near fantastical, but there it is and more than one specimen too.

A bee I often associate with Sandy areas...this one captured on Cape Cod National Seashore as part of comparative studies of dune loving bees.

This bee is part of a taxonomic mystery spanning the continent. It turns out that the male of this species is very likely named as O. trevoris, by a long ago taxonomist., All specimens were thought to be limited to the West, but....there were these strange Osmia around the Great Lakes that were sometimes called (incorrectly it now seems) O.

This bee is part of a taxonomic mystery spanning the continent. It turns out that the male of this species is very likely named as O. trevoris, by a long ago taxonomist., All specimens were thought to be limited to the West, but....there were these strange Osmia around the Great Lakes that were sometimes called (incorrectly it now seems) O.

Taxonomy and Discovery. One would expect based on what we know about things like plants and birds, that we would largely have figured out what species of bees exist in the Eastern United States...Not so, still much to do for the students of bees.

null

null

We have already added the male of this species. As the name implies this species is rufous in its hairs. Check the hairs filled with pollen underneath the abdomen. Collected by Jelle Devalez in the Aegean Islands of Greece. Photography by Brooke Alexander.

Osmia rufohirta - An Osmia from the Grecian Isles that nests in snail shells. Not this specimen as it is a male and does essentially nothing but mate. Lots of reddish hairs on this species as the name implies. Specimen collected by Jelle Devalez.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park