mellok's Favorites

Collected on Mock Orange which lines a steep roadside embankment ~20 meters.

This bee has all of the key diagnostic features expected for Andrena cerebrata: photos show the the nearly bare scutum, covered with only fragile and sparse or tiny hairs; long narrow foveae; a present but weak pronotal angle. All other features are as in the diagnosis and description on Discoverlife.

This female keys to Andrena gardineri in Mitchell (1960) and LaBerge (1967); also, to Callandrena in LaBerge (1985)’s subgeneric key. A tad early for this bee, but iNaturalist observations at this site show Packera is well into bloom by now.

Selection of initial characters in Discoverlife also leads to A. gardineri, A. hirticincta, A. rubi, and A. rudbeckiae; it cannot be the latter 3 for numerous reasons, especially the flight season and facial characters.

I attempted to photograph the bidentate labral process, hyaline tergal rims, among other key cool features of this bee.

Keys to Andrena erythronii. Pictures show a distinct but weak pronotal angle, flat clypeus with median impunctate line, wide but slightly emarginate labral process, impunctate abdomen without strong fasciae, linear malar space. Foveae are ~2/3 space, propodeum is not rugose or striate as in Trach/Scrapt. Pale vestiture, nothing fuscous or black.

TL- 29.5mm
HW- 8.2mm
PrDW-8mm
EpL- 1.9mm
AL- 17mm
AW- 12mm
PrFL- 7.8mm
MsFL- 10.6mm
MtFL- 12.5mm
S9 W:L- 1.13
Emerged 5/15/23
Adult-
TL- 72mm
MsWL- 50mm
MtWL- 48mm
PtTb- 8mm
MtTb- 13mm