SHARP-EATMAN
NATURE
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FLORIDA BEES
IDENTIFICATION PAGE # F-15
April 2025 & May 2024
Melissodes & Triepeolus
from Alachua Co.
2025 photographs of MALE Melissodes apicatus and Treipeolus are directly below.
2024 photographs of FEMALE Melissodes apicatus and Triepeolus from last year's Gainesville nest site are at the bottom of the page.
MALE MELISSODES APICATUS - 2025
General description of photographs:
Publicly available detailed photographs of male Melissodes apicatus are scarce, so I have provided two series of close-ups here. The male Melissodes apicatus is fairly easy to identify because of the apical tergal bands and characteristics of the clypeus and antennae. Nonetheless, there are interesting variations in males' clypei (some are partly yellow, some nearly all yellow, and some barely yellow). Hence, I added a mug shot gallery of various male bee faces.
Male bees are also shown here visiting pickerelweed at Sweetwater Wetlands Park.
So far, the nest site is dominated by male Melissodes apicatus and male Triepeolus (probably) georgicus.
Photographs of the Triepeolus are below.
CLOSE-UPS OF TWO MELISSODES APICATUS MALES
A male pickerelweed longhorn bee (Melissodes apicatus) drinking nectar from pickerelweed blossoms
View of white tergal bands on apices of segments
A male Melissodes apicatus
Lateral view of thorax
Frontal view
Close-up of face
Dorsal view of bee
VARIATIONS IN FACES OF MALE M. APICATUS
#1 This coloration is typical -- a mostly yellow clypeus with black around the upper edges and a strip of black on the apical rim
#2 On many of the males, black invades more of the upper margin of the clypeus
#3
#4
#5 On some males, the yellow markings are much more constricted.
#6 A more typical variation, with more yellow on the clypeus
MALES VISITING PICKERELWEED
These photos show male Melissodes apicatus on April 6-7, 2025, drinking nectar from pickerelweed. No females had emerged at this time.
MALE TRIEPEOLUS - 2025
DESCRIPTION OF TWO MALE Triepeolus:
I estimate that I have seen about 200 male Triepeolus flying around with the male Melissodes apicalis in the area occupied by last year's nest site.
Two of the male Triepeolus are shown here. They share the traits listed below. I found the male Triepolus tricky to identify, These traits of the bees, however, are consistent with Triepeolus georgicus:
SIZE: There is considerable size variation among the male Triepeolus population at the site -- although the 20+ bees of various sizes I examined were otherwise similar. The first bee shown here measures 12.5 mm; the second measures 11 mm. Some specimens examined were as small as 10 mm.
FACE/CLYEPUS: The clypeus is convex in profile. The clypeus and labrum are black. The mandibles are predominantly black, sometimes with a reddish tint medially.
One trait used to separate this species from others such as T. donatus is that the clypeus is not particularly long – on the bees shown here, the apical rim of the clypeus is relatively short -- about 1 to 1.5 ocellar diameters beyond the lower edge of the compound eye. Nevertheless, I might note that this character may not be useful in identification. When the clypeus is convex rather than flat, the angle of view affects how long the clypeus appears.
The clypeus has a dense covering of silvery tomentum. This made it difficult to assess other traits -- e.g., to determine whether the clypeus has an impunctate midline, or to assess the qualities of the punctures on the labrum. On more worn specimens, these traits are more apparent.
THORAX: The pronotal lobes and tegulae are black. (The integument of the bee's head, body and legs is generally black.) The appressed hairs on the scutum are grayish white. The paramedial bands on the scutum reach to the front of the scutum. These bands are narrow, and are clearly but not crisply defined. On less worn specimens, there are white longish (not appressed hairs) on either side of the paramedial lines).
FOREWINGS: The forewings have three submarginal cells.
ABDOMEN:
(1) The tergal bands are grayish white.
(2) The basal and apical bands of T1 are nearly parallel; the apical band of T1 is narrowly interrupted in the middle. The remaining tergal bands (including T2) are uninterrupted.
(3) On T1, the dark medial region is a rounded roughly triangular shape (rather than quadrangular). The width of the dark medial region is wider than the pale band on either side.
(4) The angle at which T2 joins the pale swaths of hair on either side is weakly acute.
(5) PYGIDIAL PLATE: the pygidial plate has a subapical ridge.
STERNUM: There are appressed white hairs on S2-S4. The hairs on S2 and S3 are all white. There are some brown hairs on S4.
SIMILAR SPECIES: The species most similar to Triepeolus georgicus are T. donatus and T. atripes. According to Rightmyer (2004), males of these two species can be separated from male Triepeolus georgicus by these traits: T. donatus has an elongate face and erect, simple setae on the mesepisternum; and In T. atripes, the clypeus is flat and has a robust midline.
I'd add to this that the tergal hair band on T2 is entire (not interrupted) on all of the Gainesville Triepeolus males I have examined from the nest site. Rightmyer (2024) does not include this character in her description of Triepeolus donatus, but her revision includes a photograph of a male Triepeolus donatus with an interrupted band on T2. I was unable to find any mention or photographs of T2 of the male Triepeolus atripes, but the female of this species has an interrupted tergal band on T2.
Rightmyer (2004) and the Pascarella & Hall Bees of Florida key do not list Triepeolus donatus or T. atripes as Florida species.
ClOSE-UPS OF TWO TRIEPOLUS MALES
A male Triepeolus (possibly) georgicus measuring 12.5 mm
Alterate view of bee
Profile view of clypeus
3/4 view of clypeus
A second male Triepeolus (possibly) georgicus measuring 11 mm
Profile of clypeus
The clypeus is not especially long or short -- it extends somewhat past the bottom edge of the compound eye.
The apparent length of the clypeus is affected by the angle of view.
Pattern of appressed hairs on typical male Triepeolus from nest site
Dorsal view of lst (larger) bee shown above
Dorsal view of abdomen of second bee shown above
Dorsal view of the abdomen of a third male Triepeolus (possibly) georgicus from the same location
FLORIDA BEES
IDENTIFICATION PAGE # F-15
May 2024
FEMALE Melissodes & Triepeolus
from Alachua Co.
The female Melissodes apicatus shown here was part of an extensive aggregation of similar females nesting in fine white sand in a Florida sandhill habitat of Gainesville during April 2024. There are wetlands nearby with large stands of pickerelweed (Pontederia cordata). (The identification of the female Melissodes apicatus shown below was confirmed by John Ascher via i-Naturalist.)
The nesting behavior of the female shown here, and of the other females around it, was as follows: The bees’ nests lacked visible entrance holes, because the fine white sand of the nest area immediately filled in any holes dug by the bees. The female bees, laden with yellow pollen, flew around the nest area, low to the ground, in order to sense the location of their underground nests. They then landed and dug down into bare sand until disappearing. The sand closed behind them, leaving no evidence of the nest entrance. Females emerged five to ten minutes later, without pollen loads.
The nesting area of the long-horned bee females was visited throughout the day by female Triepeolus like that shown in the entry at the bottom of the page (possibly Triepeolus georgica). Dozens of these brood parasites were observed repeatedly entering individual Melissodes nests, including the nest of the individual bee shown below. The brood parasite of Melisosdes apicatus is currently unknown or uncertain, and the host of Triepeolus georgica is also unknown.
Size: female 11. mm
Melissodes apicatus
(Pickerelweed longhorn bee)
Food plants:
Pickerelweed
(Pontederia cordata)
When and where seen:
May 1, 2024
(Alachua County)
A female Melissodes apicatus
This bee was part of an aggregation of female Melissodes apicatus nesting in fine white sand, in a sandhill habitat. Here, the female is hunting for its next.
The female bee entering her nest
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Female Melissodes apicatus
A female Melissodes apicatus disappearing into its nest
TRAITS: This is an 11.5 mm female long-horned bee. Some of this bee’s notable traits include the following. (1) The hair bands on the second, third and fourth segments of the abdomen (T2-T4) are white, broad and situated along the hind rim of each segment (not set back from the rim). (2) The hair on the top of the thorax (on the scutum and scutellum) is dark, with an outline of long white hairs. (3) The hair on the mesepisternum is entirely pale. There are, however, small patches of dark hairs near the pronotal lobes. (4) Hairs on the vertex are both light and dark. (5) The bee's clypeus is protuberant and pitted throughout.
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Triepeolus georgicus ?
Size: female 11 mm
Average size
of 12 specimens (10-12 mm)
Food plants: unknown
When and where seen:
April 30, 2024
(Alachua County)
Sandhill habitat
A female Triepeolus hovering over a nest area occupied by an aggregation of Melissodes apicatus.
The Triepeolus lingers nearby as a Melissodes disappears into its nest.
The Tripeolus remains after the Melissodes apicatus female disappears.
This is a close-up of the Triepeolus female pictured above in the photo series showing it entering a Melissodes nest. This female bee appears to be a Triepeolus georgicus.
Front view of the bee
The bee's clyepus has a weak midline and is partly covered with white hairs.
The bee's clypeus is somewhat protuberant.
Alternate frontal view of bee: the paramedial lines on the scutum are well-defined and touch the hairs lining the pronotal collar.
Female Melissodes apicatus
A Triepeolus flying over a nesting area and observing a female Melissodes apicatus as it disappears into its nest hole
TRIEPEOLUS TRAITS
This female Triepeolus resembles Rightmyer's description of T. georgicus and has the following traits:
GENERAL: This is a 12 mm female bee with black pronotal lobes, tegulae and legs. The integument is entirely black, except for the mandibles, which are dark red medially, and the basitarsi and tarsi which are dark brown to black. (On the antennae of two of 12 specimens examined, F1 is partly reddish-brown). The appressed hairs on the bee's head and body are white/greyish-white.
SCUTUM: The parallel paramedial bands running longitudinally on the scutum are distinct and connect with the band of hairs lining the apical edge of the scutum.
SCUTELLUM: The scutellum is roughly pitted and curved apically. The axillar spines are well-separated from the lateral edges of the scutellum, somewhat curved and moderately long.
ABDOMEN DORSAL: On T1, the apical and basal hairbands are nearly parallel. (The basal band bells outward & forward somewhat in the middle). The dark medial region of T1 is wider than the tergum's lateral hair bands. The basal hair band of T1 is uninterrupted; its apical band is interrupted. T2, T3, T4 apical are uninterrupted. ABDOMEN LATERAL: On T2, the lateral swaths of pale hairs along the tergum's sides join the apical tergal band at a weakly acute angle.
FACE/CLYPEUS: The clypeus is somewhat protuberant (not flat). It has a very weak midline. Dense white hairs cover the face above and below the antennae and along the inner edges of the compound eyes.
COMPARISONS TO SIMILAR SPECIES. This is not Triepeolus atripes because In that species the clypeus is flattened and has a robust midline. This is not Triepeolus donatus because females of that species have an elongate face with a strong to moderate midline on the clypeus.