beeboy's Favorites

all over the place on Lyonia mariana. Usually see little or nothing on this plant aside from Xylocopa punching holes in all the flowers. Are the other Lyonia specialists ever on mariana, or just ligustrina?

Surprising for me. All over on Dasiphora fructicosa; rather late date. Flowering phenology of Dasiphora varies from place to place, can be as early as June (often August-September in fens around here). Wide vertex and apical areas of tergites, fairly dense punctures on scutum (vs. virginiana). Det confirmed with voucher specimens. Seems these guys and virginiana are probably most plausible Trachandrena in August-September in the northeast...

One male collected off of willow. Broad gena with right angle margin, prominent basal mandible tooth, strongly decussate mandibles, mostly shiny almost flat clypeus, S6 not reflexed, tessellated scutum with indistinct but well-separated pits, F1 almost equal to F2.

Interesting behavior: appears to be attempted theft of pollen from the bumblebee worker by the honeybee. The honeybee was repeatedly landing on the bumblebee for at least a minute, and actually followed the bumblebee to a second flower on the bull thistle plant. On looking at the photos, it appears the honeybee worker was targeting the pollen clumps on the corbicula. She was not successful in removing an entire clump but did seem to be getting some of it off.

After looking through Triepeolus species on BugGuide, I'm wondering if this might be Triepeolus eliseae. I have additional photos if they'd be helpful, but unfortunately only the one (included here in this entry) that shows the bee from the rear - and it's somewhat blurry as the bee was spinning on the flower when I snapped that picture, and it flew away a few seconds later. Bee found on rudbeckia, back yard.

So, this is a polyergus bilateral gynandromorph! ½ worker caste (red), ½ alate (black). The mandibles, eyes, single wing, and antennae are the more obvious caste traits reflected in each half of this individual. Found them shortly after leaving the colony possibly (I found one a few feet away).
See: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124878696
& https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124879042

9.5mm long, from abdomen to forehead, measured on 2nd photo. I went through all the available photos and descriptions on Discover Life, and this was the best match.

https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Nomada+bethunei

found on elderberry in mixed forest—based on Coccinellidae of N. America (Gordon), it seems more likely that it is this species than H. pratensis due to range (H. deludens range listed as New England to midwest, H. pratensis described as ‘known only to missouri and new jersey,’ but one record (https://eol.org/pages/1174576/media) did show this species in Maine) and body description: H. pratensis was noted to be elongate more like many Brachiacantha, while H. deludens described as ‘extremely convex, rounded’

No kidding.

@joegiulian and @samwilhelm first observed and collected small Colletes males hovering around a patch of Kalmia angustifolia at this open, sandy site in the Pinelands during the last week of May. C. bradleyi had been on our radar, but this was somewhat earlier than we expected since previous records are from mid-late June. The male of C. bradleyi was formerly unknown, but it seemed to us that multiple features of these male specimens (fine, well-spaced punctures on scutum, carinate metapleural projection with testaceous rim) were reminiscent of descriptions of the female of C. bradleyi by Mitchell (1951) and Stephen (1954). The following day, @andrew_aldercotte and I visited the same site and observed multiple male Colletes, as well as females that appeared to be collecting pollen from Kalmia angustifolia (see photo). Male specimens collected on this day matched those collected previously at the site by Joe and Sam and females we collected keyed exactly to C. bradleyi following Mitchell (1951) and Stephen (1954). Highly distinctive in the field - overall impression much like other americanus-group Colletes, but somewhat duller and lacking basal hair bands on tergites; quite unique among the Colletes and general bee fauna active in our area at this time of year. Subsequent visits to other sites in the Pinelands have turned up several more female and male specimens, all collected in association with Kalmia angustifolia (alongside Andrena kalmiae and occasionally Colletes consors!). Full natural history writeup in the works...

A specimen recently discovered by Joe that was taken in Washington County, Maine, provides the first evidence that this species may occur more widely than previously thought. Moral of the story for beewatchers in the northeast US: scrutinize flowering Sheep Laurel, especially in sandy barrens habitats!

Perhaps even more interestingly, Joe and Sam also managed to collect several male specimens of an as-of-yet unidentified Epeolus visiting Kalmia alongside Colletes bradleyi at our "original" site on the date that they first observed C. bradleyi males; we have yet to find additional individuals of this Epeolus despite effort.

See observation of male here: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122250341
See observations of Epeolus here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122250342
and here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/122250345

UPDATE: Thomas Onuferko identifies the Epeolus as E. inornatus; considering previous host records for this species, it's likely associated with Colletes banksi, which almost certainly occurs at this site

Additional DSLR photos of specimens tba

See previous observations for details; another male from a “new” location, but not far from where a female specimen was caught in a bee bowl nearly 10 years ago. On Kalmia angustifolia, their apparent host. DSLR photos of specimens to be added, though sub-par phone photos do show relevant features (punctures on scutum, metapleural protuberance, etc).