Derby Canyon Natives, native bees on cultivated native plants--
Walking around experiencing the large banks of flowers while listening to the surrounding bird calls is a wonderful experience. Ted raises and sells native plants for home gardens and also restoration projects. His nursery is a feast for bees and other insects. This trip the sun was out, the flowers were in full bloom, and the insects were active, so I decided to see how many kinds of bees I could spot. Unfortunately the Bumble bees were most uncooperative so I missed what I think was a Bombus nevadensis / Nevada Bumble bee and what may have been a Bombus vagans / Half-black Bumble bee. Even the one that looked mostly like a Bombus bifarius seems like an iffy call because her abdomen has a division of black down the center...
The most interesting thing was to see all the red beetles, several in mating pairs, all over the Showy Milkweed. According to the identifiers here in iNaturalist those are Milkweed Borrers, Tetraopes femoratus.
There was a Honey bee with her leg caught in a milkweed flower's trap, which I have recently been reading about. Apparently many an insect dies if it cannot remove it's leg from the flower's clutches.
I brought home 60 plants to add to our yard. Each year we add a little more variety and any native plants I purchase always come from Derby Canyon Natives.
Observations
Photos / Sounds
What
Mason Bees (Genus Osmia)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Looks like a ring of bristly hairs circle thorax. Larger bee, roughly Honey bee sized, but more robust. Dark green-black. On Blanket Flower/Gaillardia.
Photos / Sounds
What
Masked Bees (Genus Hylaeus)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Tiny dark bee, can just see pair of vertical marks on face in one photo. On Monardella odoratissima / Coyote mint.
Photos / Sounds
What
Red-femured Milkweed Borer (Tetraopes femoratus)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Red beetles with long serrate antenna, some small dark spots on elytra.
Photos / Sounds
What
Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
This Honey bee seemed to have caught her leg or claw in this Showy Milkweed flower. She was hanging by her back leg at one point though I missed that with the camera. Seems to be some pollonia on her as well.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mining Bees (Genus Andrena)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Bee, with fovea on face near eyes, broken stripe at top of abdomen (T2 i think). On Blanketflower / Gaillardia.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mining Bees (Genus Andrena)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Cannot see face on this specimen, but she matches the other Andrena that I posted just before this one, which does show it. On Erigeron linearis /
line-leaved daisy.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mason Bees (Genus Osmia)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Robust dark green-black bee, with bristly hairs around thorax. On Heterotheca villosa / hairy False goldenaster, Leafy goldenaster. (Same as previous bee on Gaillardia, to show floral resource.)
Photos / Sounds
What
Pugnacious Leafcutter Bee (Megachile pugnata)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Bee with abdomen tilted up, filled with pollen. Has yellow hairs on thorax and white bands on abdomen. On Erigeron filofolius /
Thread-leaf fleabane.
Photos / Sounds
What
Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees (Genus Megachile)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
This bee seems to match the others with scopa below her abdomen. On a cactus at Derby Canyon Natives nursery, but I neglected to look at the leaves because the Green-tinged yellow color of the flowers was so interesting.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mason Bees (Genus Osmia)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Smaller Osmia type, dark green, scopa below abdomen, on Sedum.
Photos / Sounds
What
Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees (Genus Megachile)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Same type of bee, or maybe the same one, but there were a lot of them around, with different posture. Posted mostly to show the great pollen collection on her abdomen. On Erigeron speciosus /
Splendid fleabane.
Photos / Sounds
What
Nomad Bees (Genus Nomada)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
It was in the middle of the Pearly Everlasting so I could not get closer to take a better photo & only saw it once. On Anaphalis margaritacea / Pearly Everlasting.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mining Bees (Genus Andrena)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Same banded bee with fovea and scopa, on Anaphalis margaritacea / Pearly Everlasting.
Photos / Sounds
What
Western Calligrapher (Toxomerus occidentalis)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Round abdomen, with stripes of orange tone and dark brown (or black) on top. On Anaphalis margaritacea /
pearly everlasting.
Photos / Sounds
What
Paradise Jumping Spiders (Genus Habronattus)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Grey spider, perfectly matched coloration to concrete block wall where it was resting. Small, around 1/4" across. Pair of large eyes in front, with smaller eyes surrounding it. Covered in hairs.
Photos / Sounds
What
Van Dyke's Bumble Bee (Bombus vandykei)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Has B. bifarius thorax pattern, but there is an additional vertical line through yellow band, so might it be a B. rufocinctus? On Sedum.
Photos / Sounds
What
Tribe OsmiiniObserver
wenatcheebDescription
Small bee, abdomen is black with thin white bands and scopa underneath. Green eyes, straw yellow hairs on thorax. On Sedum.
Photos / Sounds
What
Subgenus MelanosmiaObserver
wenatcheebDescription
Small shiny green metallic bee in Sedum. Seemed to also like looking at flowers inside and below the outer edge.
Photos / Sounds
What
Brown Stink Bugs (Genus Euschistus)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Light brown with alternating light and dark border around outside edges, on Sedum.
Photos / Sounds
What
Leafcutter, Mortar, and Resin Bees (Genus Megachile)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
More photos of this bee, to show other flowers it was seen working. Striped abdomen, warm tan/golden tones to hairs on face and abdomen. Scopa underneath abdomen. On Sedum.
Photos / Sounds
What
Mason Bees (Genus Osmia)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Small to medium sized shiny green metallic bees in penstemon. (Need to double check, but might be Penstemon venustus /Venus Pensetemon).
Photos / Sounds
What
Western Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Apis mellifera on Asclepias fascicularis /
narrow-leaf milkweed. There were Honey bees all over the nursery, but they were coming from outside the farm, so feral or there was a hive elsewhere and these bees commute.
Photos / Sounds
What
Physocephala texanaObserver
wenatcheebDescription
Fly, seems to be a wasp mimic, with tan and dark brown stripes, wings colored lengthwise to appear folded. On spreading Apocynum androsaemifolium /
spreading dogbane.
Photos / Sounds
What
Greenbottle Flies (Genus Lucilia)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Apocynum androsaemifolium
spreading dogbane
Photos / Sounds
What
Genus BembixObserver
wenatcheebDescription
Wasp, about same size as a Yellow jacket, (larger than a Honey bee) with yellow legs, yellow eyes shading to green dorsally, abdomen has curved stripes, with medial separation which are a pale blueish tone that fades into yellow laterally. White hairs over head and thorax.
It was cruising along the lower edge of this bank filled completely with Spreading dogbane, but stopped to fuel up on nectar or pollen. Larger than other sand wasps I have seen in Wenatchee or East Wenatchee, east of Peshastin, Washington.
Photos / Sounds
What
Cellophane Bees (Genus Colletes)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Male? Has longer antenna, and thick yellow hairs on face.
Photos / Sounds
What
Subgenus PyrobombusObserver
wenatcheebDescription
Yellow and black striped bombus with yellow face and thorax. Seems to have bifarius style interalar, with posterior pointing triangle, but the hair bands on the upper abdomen are also divided medially... On Spiraea douglasii / Douglas' spirea, rose spirea.
Photos / Sounds
What
Bumble Bees (Genus Bombus)Observer
wenatcheebDescription
Probably not ID-able. Very dull light yellow or faded hairs with shaggy appearance. Interalar is wide, but it is impossible to tell its exact shape. Pale hairs on face, thorax, and abdomen. Female as she is carrying pollen on her corbicula. on Spiraea douglasii / Douglas' spirea, rose spirea
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