Identificaciones de sebento

This is an 11.5 mm female long-horned bee that formed part of an aggregation of about 150 similar females nesting in fine white sand in a Florida sandhill habitat. There are wetlands nearby with large stands of pickerel weed (Pontederia cordata).

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 Triepeolus cuckoo bees. These brood parasites were observed repeatedly entering individual Melissodes nests, including the nest of the bee shown here.

Some of the notable traits of the Melissodes female shown here 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 (the side of the thorax) is entirely pale. There are, however, small patches of dark hairs near the pronotal lobes. (4) Hairs on the vertex (the top of the head, behind the eyes) are both light and dark. (5) The bee's clypeus is protuberant and pitted throughout. (The clypeus is the face-part above the mandibles.)

@jordan_kue