Images

More Leaf-cutters from South Texas from my recent trip. Here is Megachile policaris. Big, found on Sunflowers alone roadsides, Note the big cutting tooth on its mandibles used to cut leaves to line its nests. A particularly trim species with nice sharp lines of bright white hairs along the rims of the abdomen.

More Leaf-cutters from South Texas from my recent trip. Here is Megachile policaris. Big, found on Sunflowers alone roadsides, Note the big cutting tooth on its mandibles used to cut leaves to line its nests. A particularly trim species with nice sharp lines of bright white hairs along the rims of the abdomen.

What a lovely leaf-cutter from the coastal dunes of Florida. I particularly like the stubtle metallic glints on the top of the abdomen. What a fantastic finish this would make to tricky out your yet black car. This species was collected by Anthony Abbate as part of his ongoing survey of Dune bee species. How vulnerable are these bees to sea level rise?

What a lovely leaf-cutter from the coastal dunes of Florida. I particularly like the stubtle metallic glints on the top of the abdomen. What a fantastic finish this would make to tricky out your yet black car. This species was collected by Anthony Abbate as part of his ongoing survey of Dune bee species. How vulnerable are these bees to sea level rise?

Megachile pseudobrevis, female, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia

A large hole nesting leaf cutter. This is a male Megachile pugnata (subspecies pomona) from Yosemite. Check out the greatly expanded pale segments of the front legs. These are used in mating and lain over the females eyes. People make up all sorts of stories with that information, but we really don't know that details about why that is a useful feature.

A large hole nesting leaf cutter. This is a male Megachile pugnata (subspecies pomona) from Yosemite. Check out the greatly expanded pale segments of the front legs. These are used in mating and lain over the females eyes. People make up all sorts of stories with that information, but we really don't know that details about why that is a useful feature.

The magnificent mandibled Megachile pugnata. Look how long and wide those mandibles are. Its not clear to me why this species requires much longer mandibles than others, it appears to not be cutting out larger pieces of leaves for its nests, but perhaps it is the type, processing and location of the leaf material that is important.

The magnificent mandibled Megachile pugnata. Look how long and wide those mandibles are. Its not clear to me why this species requires much longer mandibles than others, it appears to not be cutting out larger pieces of leaves for its nests, but perhaps it is the type, processing and location of the leaf material that is important.

Some rather bad pictures of M. pugnata males. Not sure why I selected this specimen. Terrible hair. But, anyway check out the large expanded front tarsi. Will have to get additional specimens. Collected in WV by Dave Smith who had fabulous numbers of specimens in malaise samples. Still going through them after 10 years.

Some rather bad pictures of M. pugnata males. Not sure why I selected this specimen. Terrible hair. But, anyway check out the large expanded front tarsi. Will have to get additional specimens. Collected in WV by Dave Smith who had fabulous numbers of specimens in malaise samples. Still going through them after 10 years.

Megachile relativa, a relativa (get it?) common species in northern parts of North America. The orangish pollen carrying hairs under the abdomen are uncommon and therefore useful when sussing out this species.

Megachile relativa, a relativa (get it?) common species in northern parts of North America. The orangish pollen carrying hairs under the abdomen are uncommon and therefore useful when sussing out this species.

Megachile relativa. Pretty ubiquitous in North America though it appears to be absent from most of the Midwest. The orange pollen carrying hairs on the underside of the abdomen narrow things down in terms of the various Megachile species, bug there are a few species that look very similar....particularly the introduced Megachile centuncularis.

A purposefully introduced bee, used, at times, in the pollination of alfalfa and other crops, but now widely naturalized and can be found throughout North America, particularly in urban or disturbed areas. Collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County Maryland and photographed by Brooke Alexander

Clean up time...we are going through our backlog of about 1000 unedited pictures and trying to get them uploaded. This is a nice Megachile rotundata, but sadly we seem to not have recorded where it was from when we took the picture, nor was our ability to set the picture very sophisticated as you see the pin running out the side. So it goes.

Magnificent, though invasive. This bee originates in the South China, Korea, Japan part of the world, where it happily feeds its babies pollen from leguminous plants, particularly woody ones, including Kudzu vine. It has been introduced into North America now and spread as far as Colorado, likely will go all the way to the West Coast.

Magnificent, though invasive. This bee originates in the South China, Korea, Japan part of the world, where it happily feeds its babies pollen from leguminous plants, particularly woody ones, including Kudzu vine. It has been introduced into North America now and spread as far as Colorado, likely will go all the way to the West Coast.

An introduced species that is so large and tough but it can evict Xylocopa virginica, the Carpenter bee, out of its nest by a combination of smearing it with resin and stinging it to death. Picture taken by Heagan Ahmed in Photoshop to buy Dejen Mengis.