Images

Connecticut, Tracy Zarillo collector

Andrena spiraeana is one of the set of bees in the Andrena subgenus Trachandrena. One of the characteristics of this relatively distinctive group are the deeply impressed fovea between the compound eyes and the antennae. A spring bee, I associate this species with wooded wetlands...but I may be simply mistaken on that account.

Rare Bee Alert. Andrena uvulariae was described many years ago from specimens collected where I work in Beltsville, MD and then...it largely went off the radar screen as a legit species and all things that looked like this species were simply called A. ziziaformis.

Rare Bee Alert. Andrena uvulariae was described many years ago from specimens collected where I work in Beltsville, MD and then...it largely went off the radar screen as a legit species and all things that looked like this species were simply called A. ziziaformis.

This is a first in what will be a series of pictures from Claire Kremen's Lab at U.C. Berkeley. This is Andrena vanduzeei, an endemic California bee, restricted to the High Sierras. Note the lovely blue metallic notes and surrounding dark hairs. Specimens collected in Yosemite National Park. Picture by Sydney Price.

This is a first in what will be a series of pictures from Claire Kremen's Lab at U.C. Berkeley. This is Andrena vanduzeei, an endemic California bee, restricted to the High Sierras. Note the lovely blue metallic notes and surrounding dark hairs. Specimens collected By Robbin Thorp. Picture by Sydney Price.

This is a first in what will be a series of pictures from Claire Kremen's Lab at U.C. Berkeley. This is Andrena vanduzeei, an endemic California bee, restricted to the High Sierras. Note the lovely blue metallic notes and surrounding dark hairs. Specimens collected in Yosemite National Park. Picture by Sydney Price.

Anthophora bomboides, a rather cosmopolitan Anthophora. Found throughout the north and down the mountain chains on both sides of the continent. I have my suspicions that western and eastern populations are possibly different species, but so far no one has talked to the bees' dna about that.

If you want a group of bees that generally present themselves well and look like bees not wasps choose the Digger Bee grouip. This male Anthophora californica was collected by Don Harvey in Hidalgo County, NM. Dryland area for sure and the distribution sits right in the dry areas of the West.

Anthophora curta....found in the drylands/deserts of western U.S. and Mexico. This is a rather small Anthophora and like many of the group, well groomed with small, short, mini=branched hairs. It seems to prefer composites and this particular one was found near the nowhere place of San Simone, Arizona at the eastern edge of its range. Collected by Don Harvey.

Another small Anthophora from the West Coast. This one is A. exigua and was collected in Yosemite National Park as part of ongoing studies of the fire ecology of that Park by the Claire Kremen Laboratory.

Another small Anthophora from the West Coast. This one is A. exigua and was collected in Yosemite National Park as part of ongoing studies of the fire ecology of that Park by the Claire Kremen Laboratory.

Now the back of the previous specimen, note the strong white/cream bands on the abdomen, one related group of Anthophora have these integument bands while the other species the integument is entirely black....tricky to photograph as it quickly burns the detail in the white.Note the tattered wings...this male was getting old...This bee was collected as part of a surv

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Female, Anthophora plumipes, introduced into Maryland from Japan in the 1980s...and now common in the DC region. Likely to be split from A. plumipes back to an earlier synonym A. pilipes due to recent molecular work

Key Biscayne National Park, Florida

Key Biscayne National Park, Florida

An odd and rare record of an Anthidium that normally occurs far to west in the dry part of the northwestern Great Plains, in this case it showed up on Isle Royale National Park where other northern prairie species also reside.

A small cute bee from Costa Rica. Collected by Tim Mcmahon on one of his several bee trips to that country. I can't scrounge up much about these hole nesters from Central and South America, but likely there are Brazilian papers out on the topic. I particularly like the prep and form of this specimen, pure in its positioning of wings and body.

A small cute bee from Costa Rica. Collected by Tim Mcmahon on one of his several bee trips to that country. I can't scrounge up much about these hole nesters from Central and South America, but likely there are Brazilian papers out on the topic.

Male, this fun species nests in the walls of my adobe walled house where it aggregates in large numbers where the adobe is thickest. They create small dropping tunnels at that project out from wall ...function unknown.