Last week we finished sorting 4 kits: 2 kits from H. White (Ashland County), T. Myshrall (Geauga County), J. Stachler (Auglaize County), and started sorting the kit by L. Weber (Ashland County). We are over 20,490 bees pinned and databased. We have sorted at least 47 of the kits, but still plenty of kits left to sort. I was working on project logistics for the specialist bee project, so no new progress on identification.
Helping in the lab in the age of Covid:
We had three volunteers in our lab this week! We greatly appreciate their help processing specimens.
Wondering how you can help speed up our process? If you would like to come to the lab in Newark, there are several tasks that people can participate in. We will mostly have people start with pinning bees, but people can also be trained to sort bees from bycatch in samples, label specimens, or other lab tasks.
You do not have to be a collector to help out in the lab. You also do not have to help for the entire timeslot for a particular day, so if you are only interested in helping out for an hour or three, that still works. No one is obligated to spend the whole day pinning bees.
Bycatch of the week:
Mystery larvae:
Specialist bee guide:
Finally, if you are looking for more resources, we released our Guide to Specialist Bees of Ohio today! It is a plant focused guide that helps you find the plants that are known to have specialist bees. Check it out here: https://u.osu.edu/beesurvey/files/2021/04/GuidetoSpecialistBeesofOhio_2021.pdf
Feel free to download and have a copy printed at your local print shop. As with the Bees of Ohio Field Guide from last year, it is up to you if you want a physical copy of the guide, which you are able to have printed and bound at most stores (example stores would be Staples, Uniprint, Minutemen Press, Office Depot, etc).
All for now,
MaLisa
My guess is a syrphid fly larva.