This is a 6 mm male Perdita (fairy bee) found feeding on coastal plain staggerbush (Lyonia fructicosa) in a sugar-sand habitat of St. Augustine, Florida, in early April 2021 (just outside of Moses Creek Preserve).

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TRAITS: This male bee has a largely black head, thorax and abdomen. In flight, under sunlight, the bee has an iridescent green shine. The bee’s thorax is almost entirely black, except for small yellow marks on the pronotum. The yellow bands on the second and third segments (T2 and T3) of its abdomen are narrow and interrupted in the middle. The bee has yellow coloring on the front of its antennal scapes, a distinctive yellow pattern on and above its clypeus, a yellow labrum and gently curved yellow mandibles that terminate in dark reddish points.

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The bee’s wings are milky white, with a pale stigma with dark edges. Instead of the two submarginal cells typical of Perdita, the bee’s forewing has an additional, tiny, triangular cell (a trait of the subgenus Alloperdita).

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OTHER INFO: This bee was in a group of dozens of similar male Perdita buzzing around rusty staggerbush (Lyonia gerruginea) and coastal plain staggerbush (Lyonia fruticosa) between March 29-April 4). The sandy soil near these bushes was pockmarked with small Perdita nests. Numerous Sphecodes brachycephalus (the brood parasite whose host is thought to be Perdita floridiensis) were observed visiting the nest site.

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The female bee shown below was also found on the same plant as the male Perdita.

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ID history:  This bee was initially identified from specimen in 2021 by an expert who believed it to be Perdita floridiensis.  That was also what I found the bey to key out as under the rubri of the Discover Life Perdita key. However, when I posted it shortly afterwards on i-Nat under this ID, Zach Portman contacted me to say it was not P. floridensis.  At that time, there were no posts of Florida Alloperdita on i-Nat that showed specimens in any detail.  I removed the post.

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Since then, there have been  myriad posts of Alloperdita, several of which look very similar to this bee, and which have been ID'd as Perdita floridiensis.  Thus, in 2024, reposted these photos to see what the results would be.

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