Images

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Anthophora bomboides. Fuzzy . Faking the bumble bee look to fool birds into thinking they can sting like a bumble bee. Here is one from San Juan Island in Washington State. This species occurs throughout the continent....but....its look differs across that huge geographic range. Are they more than one species or not? Does anyone care? You?

Anthophora bomboides a large bumblebee looking male from Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming. This species occurs throughout the U.S. but shows enough variation on plumage and markings that one has to suspect that more than one species is involved (see the male from Maryland elsewhere in this photostream).

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.

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

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.

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.

One of the common species found in early spring in the olive groves and flower-rich phryganic habitats of Greece. Little is known about this species and some of its sibling species and there is a great deal of confusion regarding its identity. Collected by Jelle Devalez in the Aegean islands.

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.

Compact small bee want to meet compact small flowers. Anthophora flexipes is definitely cute, though, of course, we can let that shade its importance as a pollinator in the high lands of Yosemite National Park.

Compact small bee want to meet compact small flowers. Anthophora flexipes is definitely cute, though, of course, we can let that shade its importance as a pollinator in the high lands of Yosemite National Park.

This bee was collected as part of a survey of Rocky Mountain National Park. The size of a bumblebee, but has all those cream colored markings on its face that Bumblebees never have. A male in this case.

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

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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

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

Male, 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