Hi Everyone!
We have made it above 41,000 bees identified to at least genus, with half of those identified to species! Slowly but surely has been the mantra in the lab.
Small Carpenter Bee (Ceratina) species level identification:
Face of a male carpenter bee peeking out of at pithy stem nest. These bees are common at most sites, moreso at sites with plenty of pithy stemmed plants. We have 4 species in Ohio, with many sites having 3/4 of the species.
I had originally written up a whole blog on species level identification of Ceratina, but I ended up refining it into a presentation using powerpoint instead, and then saved it as a pdf. It is not a perfect guide, and applies mostly to Ohio (so if you are in a southern state, you will need additional resources). This is the guide that I have been training people with in the lab to help us get through our abundance of Ceratina.
The most helpful part of the guide is probably the summary slides, which give you the key characters you need to go through, depending on the sex.
The most helpful part of the guide is probably the summary slides, which give you the key characters you need to go through, depending on the sex.
See guide here: Ohio Ceratina ID
See also, Sam Droege’s presentation on Ceratina identification here (video 13): http://bio2.elmira.edu/fieldbio/beemovies/index.html
Wasp course:
Want to learn more about non-bee wasps? Well, there is a course covering all the other wasps that are not bees, starting in January! Also, did I mention that it is a fully remote course? There is a small fee ($60 for regular, $45 for students). See more about the course here: https://waspidcourse.wordpress.com/
All for now,
MaLisa