Hi all! I hope you enjoyed our day at FPC as much as I did, especially the rays of sunlight and our first chance to hunt bees together. Wednesday turned out to be polyester bee day — Colletes inaequalis, so I hope you collected a specimen, took some pictures of this bee, or headed over to Stanbery to watch the bees’ behavior. Thanks to Dean for sharing his images and videos in class!
Remember for Colletes ID, we look for the heart-shaped face and S-shaped second recurrent vein. Check out the illustration below of a polyester bee brood cell from The Washington Post.
Several class members uploaded observations from FPC to iNaturalist! Keep snapping pics of those bees!
Finally, below is the short PowerPoint we viewed on bee wing characteristics. If you weren’t in class, you’ll want to learn (or review) the marginal cell, submarginal cells, basal vein and second recurrent vein. We’ll keep coming back to wing venation as our class unfolds. Images are from The Bees in Your Backyard and The Very Handy Manual.
Once you’ve reviewed the wing material, can you tell whether this iNat observation (also posted here) is a bee from the Megachilidae family? Remember, how many submarginal cells?
Now, if your brain hurts, keep in mind we’re all beginners wherever we are, and it’s also the weekend 🙂