SHARP-EATMAN
NATURE
PHOTOGRAPHY
FLORIDA BEES
IDENTIFICATION PAGE # F1
May 2023
Bees from Alachua County
Triepeolus
ID Confirmed.
Food plants:
Fleabane
Plant Family: Asteraceae
When and where seen:
May 27, 2023
Gainesville,
Parking lot at FLA (8th Ave & 55th St.)
Triepeolus lunatus
extensively red
(female)
Family: Apidae
Size: 12 mm (female)
Female bee - possible red variant of Triepeolus lunatus
Female bee: this Florida Triepeolus has extensive red coloration.
These parts of the bee are red: the legs (including the coxae), and the tegulae, pronotal lobes, axillae, and lateral front edges of the scutum.
The apical edge of the bee's clypeus is red. The bee's mandibles are red at the base (black at the tips). Thick white hairs cover the face around the antennal sockets.
The bee's antennal scapes, pedicels, and the lower flagellum (F1 and the basal edge of F2) are red.
This Florida version of Tirepeolus lunatus has much more red coloration than usual, but the other traits all seem congruent with T. lunatus.
Among them: this is a moderately large bee; the integument of the thorax is black, while that of the protonal lobes is red; the legs (including the coxae) are red; the two pale median bands on the scutum do not touch the pronotal collar; the basal and apical hairbands of T1 are not parallel to each other; the dark medial region on T1 is wider than the pale bands on either side of it; the pale band on T2 is narrowly interrupted and T2 lacks pale swaths of hair laterally; the pale bands on T3 and T4 are uninterrupted; the outline of the apical margin of the pseudopygidial area is convex; S5 looks straight in profile; the sternum is darkly-colored, and there are patches of white hair on the apical lateral areas of S2-S4; there is a weak unpitted median line on the clyepus. The bee's wings are dark.
The following parts of this bee are red: the tegulae; the pronotal lobes; the lateral front edges of the scutum; the axillae; the apical edge of the clypeus; the bases of the mandibles; the labrum; the proboscis; and the lower antennae (the scapes, pedicels, F1 & the base of F2). S1 is partly dark-red laterally.
There were many Melissodes bimaculatus in the area where this bee was feeding.