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TRIEPEOLUS - TRAITS
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Melissodes
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Nesting Behavior
Triepeolus
This page contains information & photographs pertaining to
male and female Triepeolus traits.
To view photographs of Melissodes & Triepeolus nesting behavior, click on the image above center.
To view photographs of Melissodes apicatus, click on the image above left.
TRAITS OF FEMALE TRIEPEOLUS - 2024 & 2025
TRAITS OF FEMALE TRIEPEOLUS
Female Triepeolus found at the nest site in 2024 and 2025 site resemble Rightmyer's description of T. georgicus and have the following traits:
SIZE: The female bees examined ranged between 11 and 12.5 mm.
GENERAL: The bee's head, legs and body, including the pronotal lobes and tegulae, are almost entirely black. The mandibles are reddish brown medially, and the basitarsi and tarsi are dark brown. (On the antennae of two of the specimens examined, F1 is also partly reddish-brown). The appressed hairs on the bee's head and body are white/grayish-white.
FACE/CLYPEUS: The clypeus is somewhat protuberant (not flat). On most specimens, the clypeus 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.
One trait used to separate this species from others such as T. donatus is that the clypeus of T. georgicus is not particularly elongate. 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 the best way to separate species. Because the clypeus is convex rather than flat, the angle of view affects how long the clypeus appears.
SCUTUM: The paramedian bands running longitudinally on the scutum are narrow but distinct and connect with the band of hairs lining the anterior 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 entire; its apical band is interrupted. T2, T3, and T4 apical are entire.
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.
FOREWING: Rightmyer (2008) notes that on Triepeolus georgicus specimens examined, the forewings showed variations in the number of submarginal cells. Nonetheless, the forewings of all Triepeolus females from the nest site had three submarginal cells.
COMPARISONS TO SIMILAR SPECIES.
The species most similar to Triepeolus georgicus are T. donatus and T. atripes. According to Rightmyer (2008), these two species can be separated from 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, and the paramedian band does not reach the anterior margin of the scutum.
TERGAL BANDS: I'd add that the tergal bands differ on the typical female Triepeolus donatus and the Triepeolus from the 2024-2025 Gainesville nest site. As noted, on the latter, the tergal hair bands on T2 and T3 are entire.
Rightmyer (2008) does not include this character in her description of Triepeolus donatus, but her revision includes figures of a female and a male Triepeolus donatus with interrupted tergal bands on T2 and T3; and with a narrowly interrupted basal band on T1 (p. 146, fig. 61, and p. 170, fig. 252).
Rightmyer does not note whether T2 or T3 are entire or interrupted on Triepeolus georgicus. She includes a photograph of a female with T3 entire and T2 vaguely interrupted (p. 148, fig. 80) .
Mitchell (1963: 468-470) describes Triepeolus georgicus and its synonym Triepeolus floridanus disparately, noting that on the male T. georgicus T2 is "subinterrupted medially" but omitting this trait for T. georgicus.
Because of the limitations of my macro lens, I was not able to judge the nature of the punctuation or setae on the mesepisternum of the 2025 Triepeolus. The females, however, lacked dark hairs on the mesoscutum, noted by Mitchell as a trait of T. donatus (963: p. 360).
Female Triepeolus, probably T. georgicus
FEMALE #1. This is a close-up of the a Triepeolus female found entering a Melissodes apicatus nest.
Front view of the bee
The bee's clypeus has a weak midline and is partly covered with white hairs.
The bee's clypeus is somewhat protuberant.
FEMALE #2. This is a female Triepeolus found at the nest site on April 27, 2025.
The female's clypeus has a vague midline, and is relatively short.
Additional view of bee's face, with head tilted slightly forward. One character used to separate T. georgicus from T. donatus is the length of the clypeus. This character is problematic, because the angle of view can make the protruding clypeus appear longer or shorter.
Dorsal view of thorax: the paramedian bands are narrow but distinct and reach the hairs on the front edge of the scutum.
FEMALE #3. This female Triepeolus was found at the nest site on on May 2, 2025.
Additional view of bee
Lateral view of head and thorax
Frontal view of bee
Pattern of appressed hairs on typical female Triepeolus from nest site
On all females found in 2024-2025, the pale tergal bands on T2 and T3 were entire (not interrupted). Here are three examples.
TRAITS OF MALE TRIEPEOLUS - 2025
TRAITS OF MALE TRIEPEOLUS
Two male Triepeolus (probably T. georgicus) are shown here. These traits of the bees are consistent with Triepeolus georgicus:
SIZE: There is considerable size variation among the male Triepeolus population at the site -- although the bees 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.
GENERAL: The integument of the bee's head, body and legs, including the pronotal lobes and tegulae, is generally black. The hairs on the bee's head and body are white/grayish-white.
FACE/CLYPEUS: The clypeus is convex in profile. The clypeus and labrum are black. The mandibles are predominantly black, sometimes with a reddish tint medially.
The clypeus has a dense covering of silvery tomentum. This made it difficult to assess some 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 appressed hairs on the scutum are grayish white. The paramedian bands on the scutum are narrow but clearly defined, and they 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 paramedian bands.
ABDOMEN DORSAL: The basal and apical bands of T1 are nearly parallel; the basal band of T1 is entire and the apical band narrowly interrupted in the middle.
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.
ABDOMEN LATERAL: The angle at which T2 joins the pale swaths of hair on either side is weakly acute.
PYGIDIAL PLATE: the pygidial plate has a subapical ridge.
TERGAL BANDS: As on females above, the tergal hair bands on T2 and T3 are entire (not interrupted) on all of the male Gainesville Triepeolus I have examined from the nest site.
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.
FOREWINGS: The forewings have three submarginal cells.
SIMILAR SPECIES: For the same reasons noted above for females, I concluded that the males could not be Triepeolus atripes, because on the Gainesville bees, the paramedian bands touch the anterior margin of the scutum, and the clypeus is not flattened and does not have a robust midline.
The clypeus on the Triepeolus males from the nest site does not seem sufficiently elongate to be Triepeolus donatus. Nor do the male bees from Gainesville seem to have the erect, simple setae on the mesepisternum characteristic of T. donatus. The latter character, however, may be out of the range of my macro lens.
Rightmyer (2008) shows a photograph of a male T. donatus with interrupted apical tergal bands on T2 and T3 (and an interrupted basal band on T1) p. 146 fig. 61. These traits are not shown by the bees shown here.
A male Triepeolus, probably T. georgicus
CLOSE-UPS OF TWO TRIEPOLUS MALES
MALE #1. This is a male Triepeolus measuring 12.5 mm, found at the nest site on April 12, 2025.
Alternate view of bee
Profile view of clypeus
3/4 view of clypeus
MALE #2: This is a second male Triepeolus (probably T. georgicus), measuring 11 mm, also found at the nest site on April 12, 2025.
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
On all males found in 2024-2025, the pale tergal bands on T2 and T3 were entire (not interrupted). Here are three examples.
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