Bees are part of an ecosystem under stress. Pesticides, disease, habitat loss and climate change have all contributed to illness and death in bee populations. These vital pollinators need our support.
Science and conservation have a crucial part to play in saving bees and other insects from decline and extinction. Honey bees are the most important single species of pollinator and contributor to healthy natural ecosystems. But bumblebees and solitary bees also make an outsized contribution to keeping plants, flowers, fruit and vegetable crops alive for us all to enjoy.
The world’s first global map of bees was created in 2020, compiled from more than 5.8 million public records of bee sightings. Yet records of native bee species are often patchy, especially in developing countries. So thanks must go to the US Geological Survey for its incredible efforts in gathering real time earth observation data.
And in particular for its photographic collection of bee species – the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Program. Available on Flickr, these astounding, detailed pictures of bees are available to be enjoyed by everybody.
Range jumper: this species jumped from Illinois to Virginia. There are no records in between. This is a rare bee in its limited range in the Midwest and to find it all the way in the mountains of Virginia seems near fantastical.
Also interesting to note that all the other Osmia in the east range from black to dark metallic blue, nothing like this green bling.
Augochloropsis metallica metallica. Note the generally darker blue and the fringe of stiff hairs along the edge of the abdomen.
This bee was collected on Plummer’s Island as part of Gene Scarpulla’s bee project in the Chesapeake Bay of Maryland.
A new bee species record for the state of Maryland. Triepeolus rhododontus was found on a dredge spoil island in the Chesapeake Bay.
One of the interesting aspects of this island is that it is two miles from the coast of the Bay and did not have any significant original habitat (the islands formerly there have shrunk to about an acre). So all the bees there had to travel across two miles of water to live there. There is good indication here that bees are good at dispersing once they emerge from their nests.
This is Lithurgus chrysurus. This is a Euro bee, but in the 1970s some one noticed that their house in Philipsburg, NJ was being drilled to bits by bees. Turns out it was the first appearance of this species in North America and, indeed, like the carpenter bee it can make holes in solid wood to create nests.
They are still limited to Philadelphia and New Jersey, but the expectation is that they will continue to spread throughout the US.
This is Dianthidium simile: a sand lover and found for the first time by the Virginia Heritage Group. I believe it was found on Fort AP Hill Army base. Military Bases are often great places for insects given that they are usually found on ‘bad’ land not used for agriculture.
Small fuzzy Diadasia diminuta. This little fur ball, is a globe mallow specialist. They are from Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
Tightly wrapped in fur-like orange hair, this lovely western bumblebee (Bombus morrisoni) was captured at the far edge of its range in Badlands National Park in South Dakota.
Found near the Black Hills, an island of Rocky Mountain type habitat in a sea of prairie, the Badlands are receivers perhaps of bees that otherwise would not inhabit prairie habitats.
Terrible specimen, but the only specimen on hand for Osmia subarctica. A male with distinctive upturned gonostyli on its genitalia… as we all know.
WeLove-Digital 
Posted on December 31, 2021
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