Confirmed ID Requests for Oct 28
ID's have been confirmed for the species below
Texas Cuckoo Leafcutter Bee (male)
Coelioxys texanus
Family: Megachildae
Size: 11 mm (male)
14 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Mexican hat
(Rabatida columnifera)
Family: Asteraceae
When seen: October 2019
male bee
Male bee
Male Exomalopsis simiilis
Exomalopsis similis
Family: Apidae
Size: 4-5 mm (male)
Associated plant at NBC:
Seaside goldenrod
Solidago sempervirens
(Family Asteraceae)
When found:
October 2019
Male bee
Male bee
Male bee
Photostrip of female E. similis
found last year is below.
Below is a female Exomalopsis similis that you identified for us last year.
The individual female bee shown below measured 6-7 mm.
HERIADES: We think this might be Heriades variolosa because: This female bee lacks the carina on the jaw found on H. carinata, and this bee's wings are not dark like those of H. leavitti. The pits on T1 and T2 are finer than those on T3. We ran this through the Discover Life database key, and also used the key provided here: Michener, Charles D. “Records and Descriptions of North American Megachilid Bees.” Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, vol. 27, no. 2, 1954, pp. 65–78 at 68.
Heriades (Neotrypetes) variolosa
Family: Halictidae
Size: 7 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Spanish needles
Bidens alba
(Family Asteraceae)
When found:
October 2019
Female bee
Female bee
Nomada texana (female)
Family: Apidae
Size: 11 mm (female)
Associated plants at NBC:
Seaside goldenrod
Solidago sempervirens
Spanish needles
Bidens alba
(Family Asteraceae)
When found:
October 2019
Female bee
Female bee
Female bee
This is a coppery-pink male Augochlorella measuring about 6 mm. Notable traits of the bee include: its black antenna tips; its yellowish tarsi and front tibiae; its partly yellow labrum and clypeus; the white hairs on the face and sparser pale white hairs covering much of the body; and the pinkish-coppery color of the head, thorax and abdomen. I thought this might be A. gratiosa, but the hind leg basistarsi lack long hairs on the top 1/3 of the segment, which seems to be a defining trait of males of that species. We've seen many Augochlorella aurata females that are this coppery color -- but as I've never seen a male A. aurata before, I thought I should ask for a verification of the ID.
Augochlorella bracteata
Family: Apidae
Size: 6 (male)
Associated plant at NBC:
Scorpion-tail
(Heliotropium angiospermum)
Family: Boraginaceae
When seen: October 2019
Male bee
Male bee
This looks nearly identical to the Exomalopsis solani you identified for us last week (which is shown directly below). The main difference is that the bee has rust-colored scopal hairs and a rust-colored tuft at the back of the thorax. To the naked eye, these features appear brilliant orange. Numerous female bees with these features were feeding on Texas sage, in an area fairly distant from the bushes where we found the E. solani feeding on shrubby blue salvia.
Exomalopssis birkmanni
Family: Apidae
Size: 11 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Texas sage
(Leucophyllum frutescens)
Family: Scrophulariaceae
When seen: October 2019
A female Exomalopsis birkmanni
Confirmed ID Requests for Oct 17
ID's have been confirmed for the species below
Exomalopssis solani (female)
Family: Apidae
Size: 10 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Shrubby blue salvia
(Salvia ballotiflora)
Family: Laminaceae
When seen: October 2019
Female bee
This Exomalopsis is different from the other four species we've found so far in Hidalgo County (Exomalopsis mellipes, E. mellipes, E. snowi, E. anilis and E. similis, which appear on this guide page). This bee seems to most closely resemble Exomalopsis birkmanni -- a description and photo of this species appear on this Discover Life database page.
This female bee was feeding on shrubby blue salvia. It is relatively large for an Exomalopsis. Its tegulare are dark and opaque.
LEGS: The hair on its hind legs is entirely pale, on both the outer and inner faces. The hair on the outer middle legs is dark on the tibias and pale below.
Scutum & Scutellum: The bee's scutum is highly reflective, but somewhat pitted on the front half.
Abdomen: T1 and T2 are shiny and highly reflective; there's a small pitted section along the base of T2. T2 has a complete apical band of pale hair. The band on T1 is widely interrupted.
Face and Antennae: The bee's clypeus is pitted on the upper half; the lower, apical half does not appear to be as pitted. F1 is somewhat longer than F2.
Anthophora capistrata (female)
Family: Apidae
Size: 14 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Shrubby blue salvia
(Salvia ballotiflora)
Family: Laminaceae
When seen: October 2019
Female bee
I'm fairly sure that this is a female Anthophora capistrata. Several male A. capistrata were feeding together on the same shrubby blue salvia bush as the female bee shown here.
We discovered male Anthophora capistrata digger bees on shrubby blue salvia at the National Butterfly Center last April (viewable here), and I've seen several on shrubby blue salvia at the NBC since arriving here in mid-October. The males are simpler to identify, since they have such striking markings on their faces.
In April, we found a E. T. Cresson's description of male Anthophora capistrata in “Descriptions of new species of North American bees," Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, vol. 30 (1878): 181-221 at 209-210 and 216-217). Cresson based his description of Anthophora capistrata on an examination of two male bees,, but did not describe the female. We were unable to unearth clear photographs or illustrations of female A. capistrata from reliable sources.
The only other digger bee species we've seen at NBC is Anthophora californica. Females of that species are smaller than the bee shown here and have green eyes. Also, the white abdominal bands are integumental, not formed by hairs like the bands on the abdomen of the bee shown here.
The Discover Life database records A. capistrata as feeding on salvia as well as mesquite.
Colioxys texanus (male)
Family: Megachildae
Size: 11 mm (male)
Associated plant at NBC:
Resinbush
(Viguiera stenoloba)
Family: Asteraceae
When seen: October 2019
Male bee
Face of male bee
Male bee
The following information is listed in the Discover Life Database page for Coelioxys texanus: "In both sexes of Coelioxys texana the antennal scape and pedicel are usually ferruginous, a condition found in no other North American Coelioxys spp."
This male bee seems too fit all other aspects of the description of that species cited from T. B. Mitchell on the same Discover Life page.
A female Coelioxys that appears to be C. texanus is shown below as well.
Colioxys texanus (female)
Family: Megachildae
Size: 14 mm (female)
Associated plant at NBC:
Seaside goldenrod
(Solidago sempervirens)
Family: Asteraceae
When seen: October 2019
Female bee
Female bee
This is a large female bee - 14 mm -- found feeding on goldenrod, about ten
yards from the bush where the male Coelioxys shown above appeared two days earlier. As with the male bee, the scapes and pedicels of this female bee are red.
The tip of S6 is blunt -- this is why I think this is C. texanus instead of C. hunteri?
The bee also has a tuft of white hair in front of the central ocellus. Matted hairs obscure most of the bee's jaws, also a trait of C. texanus.
Dieunomia nevadensis (male)
Family: Halictidae
Size: 9 mm (male)
Associated plant at NBC:
Seaside goldenrod
(Solidago sempervirens)
Family: Asteraceae
When seen: October 2019
Male bee
Triepeolus sp (not lunatus)
Family: Apidae
Size: 12 mm (male)
Associated plant at NBC:
Resinbush
(Viguiera stenoloba)
Family: Asteraceae
When seen: October 2019
Male bee
This male bee has a black clypeus and labrum and black-and-reddish jaws. Its clypeus lacks a median line. There are white hairs around the base of each antenna. The scapes, pedicels and F-1 of each antenna; the tegulae; and the bottom halves of the legs are red. The pronotal nodes are black.