Images

Super cool, Super rare, Super fun. Who would say such a thing about a little brown bee? In this case it is Colletes ciliatus. Here is a bee that was featured in a paper we wrote several years ago as one of the "missing bees" not seen for many years.

Super cool, Super rare, Super fun. Who would say such a thing about a little brown bee? In this case it is Colletes ciliatus. Here is a bee that was featured in a paper we wrote several years ago as one of the "missing bees" not seen for many years.

Super cool, Super rare, Super fun. Who would say such a thing about a little brown bee? In this case it is Colletes ciliatus. Here is a bee that was featured in a paper we wrote several years ago as one of the "missing bees" not seen for many years.

Colletes compactus is a late fall Colletes, specializing on things like goldenrod. Colletes is an interesting group....different species coming out throughout the year and many of them highly specialized in what they gather pollen from. They perhaps are all specialists, but some are quite rare and so we know little (a common story).

A relatively uncommon Cellophane Bee from South Georgia in old Long-leaf Pine habitat. Not much is known about this species, most of the records are from the Southeast with a few suspicious ones up north. Collected by the bee fabulous Sabrie Breland. I accidentally shredded this ones wings when cleaning it.

Ivy specialist! Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200.

Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200.

Colletes inaequalis, female, Prince George's County Maryland

Another mid-summer Colletes from the central prairies. Note the "cute" face with the inner edges of the eyes converging towards the mouth. For some reason this automatically makes a bee cute compared to the standard bee face format that most species display.

Another mid-summer Colletes from the central prairies. Note the "cute" face with the inner edges of the eyes converging towards the mouth. For some reason this automatically makes a bee cute compared to the standard bee face format that most species display.

A cute male bee.... this is the visual of almost all bees in the genus Colletes. Look at how the inner edges of the eyes come closer towards the mouth. For whatever reason, this cutifies pretty much any bee. Enough of that mushy bee stuff. This is a western prairie bee, one that I found at the eastern edge of its range in Hooker, NE.

A cute male bee.... this is the visual of almost all bees in the genus Colletes. Look at how the inner edges of the eyes come closer towards the mouth. For whatever reason, this cutifies pretty much any bee. Enough of that mushy bee stuff. This is a western prairie bee, one that I found at the eastern edge of its range in Hooker, NE.

Specialist: Colletes latitarsis, a lover of ground cherry,Physalis, a weedy plant, but a flowering one, and a native one, with its own set of the species that appear to only gather pollen and perhaps nectar from its flowers. This plant though is not uncommon, and occurs in many of the gardens.

Specialist: Colletes latitarsis, a lover of ground cherry,Physalis, a weedy plant, but a flowering one, and a native one, with its own set of the species that appear to only gather pollen and perhaps nectar from its flowers. This plant though is not uncommon, and occurs in many of the gardens.

This bee collects pollen from the weedy, but native, Physalis or ground cherry plants. The flowers of this group are low and dangly and tend to be overlooked as does Colletes latitarsis. Likely more common than would appear as it rarely goes into traps and is hard to find unless hunted for directly. Joe Milone was the photographer.

Hiding in plain site. Is this Cellophane Bee... Colletes latitarsis is a bee that only feeds its babies pollen from the all american weed. Ground Cherry.... Physalis to you sciencey types. The thing about Physalis is that it is very shy about showing its sexual parts. The flowers dangle underneath its leafy roof and are this side of green for a yellow flower.

This bee collects pollen from the weedy, but native, Physalis or ground cherry plants. The flowers of this group are low and dangly and tend to be overlooked as does Colletes latitarsis. Likely more common than would appear as it rarely goes into traps and is hard to find unless hunted for directly. Joe Milone was the photographer.

From Suffolk, County New York near the tip of Long Island in September, This species just pops up in mid to late summer at low levels in the East. You should be so lucky to have some in the native habitat you encouraged on your property. (You did do that didn't you?). Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

The bee genus Colletes...also known as Cellophane Bees because of their habitat of lining their cells with a plastic like substance...is full of relatively uncommon bees that specialist on a the pollen of a small number of plants or groups of plants. This may be the case with C. phaceliae given its name...but I am not clear.

Here are 4 views of Colletes phaceliae. Hannah Sutton took these using 4 different back grounds, just to play with something other than a Black background. With these more complicated backgrounds I have a harder time removing the pin in photoshop....perhaps people can give me some feedback on how to make that more seemless.

The bee genus Colletes...also known as Cellophane Bees because of their habitat of lining their cells with a plastic like substance...is full of relatively uncommon bees that specialist on a the pollen of a small number of plants or groups of plants. This may be the case with C. phaceliae given its name...but I am not clear.