All Multimedia

Colletes phaceliae - Western bee, but this one caught at the edge of its range, where it was hanging out in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Photo by Erick Hernandez and Kelly Graninger.

Colletes pahceliae - As you might suspect it is a lover of the plant phaceliae. Many of the Colletes are tight plant specialists. Only feeding their babies the pollen from one group of plants. With that lifestyle comes your status becomes linked to the the status of those plants. The status of those native plants are a mirror of how we treat our environments.

Colletes productus - Lover of Lyonia. Lyonia = obscure shrub aka fetterbush/staggerbush/maleberry. There are a lot of obscure relationships out there. Here is a specialist bee dependent on an reasonably lovely ericaceous shrub. No Lyonia no C. productus and several other bees. Who speaks for Lyonia though? Can we plant our way back to native bee health.

Colletes productus - Lover of Lyonia. Lyonia = obscure shrub aka fetterbush/staggerbush/maleberry. There are a lot of obscure relationships out there. Here is a specialist bee dependent on an reasonably lovely ericaceous shrub. No Lyonia no C. productus and several other bees. Who speaks for Lyonia though? Can we plant our way back to native bee health.

Colletes productus - Lover of Lyonia. Lyonia = obscure shrub aka fetterbush/staggerbush/maleberry. There are a lot of obscure relationships out there. Here is a specialist bee dependent on an reasonably lovely ericaceous shrub. No Lyonia no C. productus and several other bees. Who speaks for Lyonia though? Can we plant our way back to native bee health.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

I stopped by a pullout in the sandhills of Nebraska on my way to the Badlands one year and just did some collecting off the sweet clover and other mostly weedy plants that lined the dirt parking area and along the nearby rail road tracks....fantastically abundant with bees. This was one of them the relatively common Colletes robertsonii. Photo by Erick Hernandez.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

A little series of pictures of Colletes robertsonii from the Sandhills of Nebraska...Hooker county. A Midwestern species, this male and female were found in a nice patch of flowers along the road in a small pull off. Lovely country...the Sandhills. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

Photo by Anders Croft 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, USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into th

Not a great specimen, but then again, the species is one we have seen only a few times... you get what you can take. As the name implies there MIGHT be a relationship between this species and golden rod. Is that true? Someone needs to look at little more deeply and perhaps look at the pollen on the bodies of these bees to make such declarations.

Not a great specimen, but then again, the species is one we have seen only a few times... you get what you can take. As the name implies there MIGHT be a relationship between this species and golden rod. Is that true? Someone needs to look at little more deeply and perhaps look at the pollen on the bodies of these bees to make such declarations.

Not a great specimen, but then again, the species is one we have seen only a few times... you get what you can take. As the name implies there MIGHT be a relationship between this species and golden rod. Is that true? Someone needs to look at little more deeply and perhaps look at the pollen on the bodies of these bees to make such declarations.

Colletes thoracicus. One of the cellophane bees. Aggregates in large numbers in loose soil or cliff faces. Photographer is Greta Forbes.

Colletes thoracicus. One of the cellophane bees. Aggregates in large numbers in loose soil or cliff faces. Photographer is Greta Forbes.

Colletes thoracicus. One of the cellophane bees. Aggregates in large numbers in loose soil or cliff faces. Photographer is Greta Forbes.

For whatever reason we haven't taken any very good pictures of this here bee, Colletes thoracicus. This species is one of two that form huge aggregations in loose or sandy soils in the Eastern U.S. Very cool and for some reason lacking any Bee Nest Parasites (Epeolus) that haunt other Colletes.

Rarity here. This is species was described in the 1950s, named after the town it was collected near and only a handful of specimens have ever been collected that I am aware of. In fact it is so rare that it was on our list of "missing" species, published in 2011.