Greetings Everyone:

I think the new bee monitoring list is ready to use.  If you know of
anyone who would like to join you can email me their address and I
will sign them up.

To send a message to the group just email:

beemonitoring@yahoogroups.com


Below is something that has frustrated me for a long while.   After
looking at many specimens and sorting through quite a number of
misdetermined specimens I have come up with the following guide for
these common species.  I would be interested in any comments ...

Thanks.

sam

C. octodentata vs C. sayi - combination of characters - a difficult
pair to separate, most collections have numerous misidentifications

C. octodentata - Primary character is the latitudinal groove that
transverses T2 and especially T3, this groove is continuous across the
segments, look particularly in the center of these segments, here it
maintains a depth about the same as that on the sides and the pits in
the bottom of the groove are continous, touching one another without a
break and always touching - In addition to the character there is a
PROPENSITY for the following characters to also occur, but beware,
numerous exceptions occur femur orange, pits on center of T5 touching,
some pits on center of S2 touching, distance between lateral ocelli
less than distance from lateral ocelli to back of head we have seen no
examples where the distance is more

C. sayi - Primary character is the latitudinal groove that transverses
T2 and especially T3, one can imagine that this groove is continuous
across the segments, but look in the center of these segments, here,
particularly on T3 it becomes very shallow, more like a depression
than a groove, in contrast with its depth on the sides, the pits in
the bottom of the groove are not continuous in the center, there is a
break in the center where the pits no longer touch one another and
some small gaps in the line of pits occur - In addition to this
character there is a PROPENSITY for the following characters to also
occur, but beware, numerous exceptions occur femur orange to part
orange, to completely dark, pits on center of T5 usually not touching,
pits on center of S2 usually not touching, distance between lateral
ocelli varies and can be less than, equal to or more than the distance
from lateral ocelli to back of head

Hi Sam:

Yes, this is a difficult ID.

I've been found that the ocellar character (octodentata with ocelli closer
together relative to long vertex) SEEMS TO work for me much (perhaps not
all) of the time, when considering size (sayi often smaller) and color
(sayi usually with darker legs) too, but perhaps I'm fooling myself. We
have many det. (by Baker and by me) specimens of both species if you wish
to check them sometime.

There may be a different in puntures on the vertex as well at least on
average.

I recall being unhappy with certain Baker dets. of this pair when I was at
Cornell, but perhaps this merely reflected my inexperience at that time.

Cheers,
John


> Greetings Everyone:
>
> I think the new bee monitoring list is ready to use.  If you know of
> anyone who would like to join you can email me their address and I
> will sign them up.
>
> To send a message to the group just email:
>
> beemonitoring@yahoogroups.com
>
>
> Below is something that has frustrated me for a long while.   After
> looking at many specimens and sorting through quite a number of
> misdetermined specimens I have come up with the following guide for
> these common species.  I would be interested in any comments ...
>
> Thanks.
>
> sam
>
> C. octodentata vs C. sayi - combination of characters - a difficult
> pair to separate, most collections have numerous misidentifications
>
> C. octodentata - Primary character is the latitudinal groove that
> transverses T2 and especially T3, this groove is continuous across the
> segments, look particularly in the center of these segments, here it
> maintains a depth about the same as that on the sides and the pits in
> the bottom of the groove are continous, touching one another without a
> break and always touching - In addition to the character there is a
> PROPENSITY for the following characters to also occur, but beware,
> numerous exceptions occur femur orange, pits on center of T5 touching,
> some pits on center of S2 touching, distance between lateral ocelli
> less than distance from lateral ocelli to back of head we have seen no
> examples where the distance is more
>
> C. sayi - Primary character is the latitudinal groove that transverses
> T2 and especially T3, one can imagine that this groove is continuous
> across the segments, but look in the center of these segments, here,
> particularly on T3 it becomes very shallow, more like a depression
> than a groove, in contrast with its depth on the sides, the pits in
> the bottom of the groove are not continuous in the center, there is a
> break in the center where the pits no longer touch one another and
> some small gaps in the line of pits occur - In addition to this
> character there is a PROPENSITY for the following characters to also
> occur, but beware, numerous exceptions occur femur orange to part
> orange, to completely dark, pits on center of T5 usually not touching,
> pits on center of S2 usually not touching, distance between lateral
> ocelli varies and can be less than, equal to or more than the distance
> from lateral ocelli to back of head
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
Bee Database Project Manager
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @ 79th St.
New York, NY 10024-5192
work phone: 212-496-3447
mobile phone: 917-407-0378

Hi bee aficionados,

I am not really a bee expert (I specialize more in aculeate wasps) so
please forgive me if I am asking any stupid questions. Sam: You did not
mention whether this character was for males or females so I assume it
works for both.

Identifying Coelioxys from Ontario with Mitchell my main problem was
that everything seemed to come out as C. atlantica. Obviously there were
several species (and I did not have any males that keyed to atlantica!).
Was all that my mistake or does Mitchell's female key not work properly?
What keys do the experts recommend for Coelioxys from our area?

Cheers,

            Matthias


Dr. Matthias Buck, Curator
Insect Collection
Dept. of Environmental Biology
University of Guelph
Guelph, Ontario
Canada, N1G 2W1
E-mail: mbuck@...
Phone: (519) 824-4120 ext.: 52582
Fax: (519) 837-0442
www.uoguelph.ca/debu/people.htm

The heading of Sam's email suggests that his characters apply for males.
Female sayi are in most cases easily distinguished by the protuberances on
the clypeus.

C. atlantica is now recognized as a jr. syn. of C. octodentata, a common
species in Ontario. The most similar species are sayi and rufiventris, of
which the latter should be particularly common in Ontario. Baker (1975) is
the definitive reference with updated keys, but Mitchell (1962) is still
useful, especially the illustrations, if one is aware of Baker's
synonymies. I find that I can identify most Coelioxys, excepting, e.g.,
the difficult octodentata vs. sayi problem mentioned by Sam, simply by
matching specimens with Mitchell's illustrations and then double-checking
using his key.

Matthias, if you find very small Coelioxys these will likely be modesta or
moesta, and those with dark legs could be sodalis or porterae (or perhaps
funeraria).

Cheers,
John


> Hi bee aficionados,
>
> I am not really a bee expert (I specialize more in aculeate wasps) so
> please forgive me if I am asking any stupid questions. Sam: You did not
> mention whether this character was for males or females so I assume it
> works for both.
>
> Identifying Coelioxys from Ontario with Mitchell my main problem was
> that everything seemed to come out as C. atlantica. Obviously there were
> several species (and I did not have any males that keyed to atlantica!).
> Was all that my mistake or does Mitchell's female key not work properly?
> What keys do the experts recommend for Coelioxys from our area?
>
> Cheers,
>
>            Matthias
>
>
> Dr. Matthias Buck, Curator
> Insect Collection
> Dept. of Environmental Biology
> University of Guelph
> Guelph, Ontario
> Canada, N1G 2W1
> E-mail: mbuck@...
> Phone: (519) 824-4120 ext.: 52582
> Fax: (519) 837-0442
> www.uoguelph.ca/debu/people.htm
>
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
Bee Database Project Manager
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @ 79th St.
New York, NY 10024-5192
work phone: 212-496-3447
mobile phone: 917-407-0378

By "rufiventris" I meant rufitarsis. Sorry for this mistake.

I am not the first to have problems with the name "rufitarsis", as it was
originally proposed as "rufitarsus" by Smith, 1854: 271, but was
subsequently miscited as "rufitarsis" by Dalla Torre, 1896 (and Mitchell,
1962; Baker). Dalla Torre's spelling was a lapsus and not an emendation,
as he miscited Smith's original spelling as "rufitarsis". Hurd, 1979,
cited the original correctly as "rufitarsus" but accepted Dalla Torre's
"rufitarsis" spelling as valid.

John

>
> The heading of Sam's email suggests that his characters apply for males.
> Female sayi are in most cases easily distinguished by the protuberances on
> the clypeus.
>
> C. atlantica is now recognized as a jr. syn. of C. octodentata, a common
> species in Ontario. The most similar species are sayi and rufiventris, of
> which the latter should be particularly common in Ontario. Baker (1975) is
> the definitive reference with updated keys, but Mitchell (1962) is still
> useful, especially the illustrations, if one is aware of Baker's
> synonymies. I find that I can identify most Coelioxys, excepting, e.g.,
> the difficult octodentata vs. sayi problem mentioned by Sam, simply by
> matching specimens with Mitchell's illustrations and then double-checking
> using his key.
>
> Matthias, if you find very small Coelioxys these will likely be modesta or
> moesta, and those with dark legs could be sodalis or porterae (or perhaps
> funeraria).
>
> Cheers,
> John
>
>
>> Hi bee aficionados,
>>
>> I am not really a bee expert (I specialize more in aculeate wasps) so
>> please forgive me if I am asking any stupid questions. Sam: You did not
>> mention whether this character was for males or females so I assume it
>> works for both.
>>
>> Identifying Coelioxys from Ontario with Mitchell my main problem was
>> that everything seemed to come out as C. atlantica. Obviously there were
>> several species (and I did not have any males that keyed to atlantica!).
>> Was all that my mistake or does Mitchell's female key not work properly?
>> What keys do the experts recommend for Coelioxys from our area?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>>            Matthias
>>
>>
>> Dr. Matthias Buck, Curator
>> Insect Collection
>> Dept. of Environmental Biology
>> University of Guelph
>> Guelph, Ontario
>> Canada, N1G 2W1
>> E-mail: mbuck@...
>> Phone: (519) 824-4120 ext.: 52582
>> Fax: (519) 837-0442
>> www.uoguelph.ca/debu/people.htm
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Yahoo! Groups Links
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
> Bee Database Project Manager
> Division of Invertebrate Zoology
> American Museum of Natural History
> Central Park West @ 79th St.
> New York, NY 10024-5192
> work phone: 212-496-3447
> mobile phone: 917-407-0378
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
Bee Database Project Manager
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @ 79th St.
New York, NY 10024-5192
work phone: 212-496-3447
mobile phone: 917-407-0378

Thanks for the clarifications. I should start reading subject headers
more carefully.

I will get Baker and give our Coelixys another go. We do have some
smaller Coelioxys species here as well. All in all about eight
identified species from Ontario in our collection. We'll see whether
they are correctly identified.

I haven't mustered enough courage yet to look at our Nomada.

Cheers,

           Matthias

• Interactive biogeographic maps can be viewed at: http://stri.discoverlife.org/mp/20m?act=make_map.  Users can generate global maps of any species or group of species, can zoom or overlay map layers, and can pull up individual record information by clicking on the map.
• Lists of species names can be accessed by typing in the genus name in the search box of the Discover Life Home Page (http://www.discoverlife.org).

Sam:

Are you sure this applies to all populations (e.g., dupla floridana)?

I wasn't confident in the characters on the poster by the Canadians. The
punctures seemed to vary a lot.

On another subject, I find it easy to distinguish Megachile brevis vs.
mendica and question their being indistinguishable. I find Mitchell's
characters of the tergal apex useful and rarely have problems. I can even
tell texana vs. mendica most of the time, although some specimens are
genuinely puzzling.

John





> Given the prevalance of these two species, I thought it worth sending out
> a quick note about discriminating the females.  Expanding on  Sandra Rehan
> work on discriminating Ceratina dupla from C. calcarata I recently found
> another character that will help separate the two, this requires more
> experience but is useful for discriminating inbetween specimens.
>
> I have added the following to the Ceratina guide:
>
> With experience and a good series of both species the propodeal triangle
> can be used to discriminate among ambiguous specimens.  In dupla the basal
> striations extend usually rather uniformly about two-thirds of the way to
> edge across the entire width, these striations are usually dense enough
> that it is difficult to discriminate individual members.  In calcarata the
> basal striations extend about two-thirds or more of the way in the center
> but this proportion decreases to the sides, thus leaving a non-uniform,
> unstriated portion of the rim of the triangle; the striations can be more
> widely spaced and usually are clearly separable from their neighbors,
> additionally the entire triangle tends to be longer in comparison to
> dupla.


--
John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
Bee Database Project Manager
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @ 79th St.
New York, NY 10024-5192
work phone: 212-496-3447
mobile phone: 917-407-0378

FYI, I wasn't intending to reply to this whole list but only to Sam.


>
> Sam:
>
> Are you sure this applies to all populations (e.g., dupla floridana)?
>
> I wasn't confident in the characters on the poster by the Canadians. The
> punctures seemed to vary a lot.
>
> On another subject, I find it easy to distinguish Megachile brevis vs.
> mendica and question their being indistinguishable. I find Mitchell's
> characters of the tergal apex useful and rarely have problems. I can even
> tell texana vs. mendica most of the time, although some specimens are
> genuinely puzzling.
>
> John
>
>
>
>
>
>> Given the prevalance of these two species, I thought it worth sending
>> out
>> a quick note about discriminating the females.  Expanding on  Sandra
>> Rehan
>> work on discriminating Ceratina dupla from C. calcarata I recently found
>> another character that will help separate the two, this requires more
>> experience but is useful for discriminating inbetween specimens.
>>
>> I have added the following to the Ceratina guide:
>>
>> With experience and a good series of both species the propodeal triangle
>> can be used to discriminate among ambiguous specimens.  In dupla the
>> basal
>> striations extend usually rather uniformly about two-thirds of the way
>> to
>> edge across the entire width, these striations are usually dense enough
>> that it is difficult to discriminate individual members.  In calcarata
>> the
>> basal striations extend about two-thirds or more of the way in the
>> center
>> but this proportion decreases to the sides, thus leaving a non-uniform,
>> unstriated portion of the rim of the triangle; the striations can be
>> more
>> widely spaced and usually are clearly separable from their neighbors,
>> additionally the entire triangle tends to be longer in comparison to
>> dupla.
>
>
> --
> John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
> Bee Database Project Manager
> Division of Invertebrate Zoology
> American Museum of Natural History
> Central Park West @ 79th St.
> New York, NY 10024-5192
> work phone: 212-496-3447
> mobile phone: 917-407-0378
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


--
John S. Ascher, Ph.D.
Bee Database Project Manager
Division of Invertebrate Zoology
American Museum of Natural History
Central Park West @ 79th St.
New York, NY 10024-5192
work phone: 212-496-3447
mobile phone: 917-407-0378

Major changes have taken place in the Discover Life Green_bees guide which
included the genera Agapostemon, Augochlora, Augochloropsis, Augochlorella.

There is now a seperate guide for Agapostemon and it has been expanded to
include all species found in North America north of Mexico.

Please use it and give feedback.

http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Agapostemon

Thank you

Kim Huntzinger
kimberly_huntzinger@...

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself - download free Windows Live Messenger themes!
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Announcing the newly expanded Halictus guide on Discover Life.  It now
includes all the species in North America north of Mexico.  Please use it
soon and provide feedback.  Below is the link to the guide.

http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Halictus

Thank you,

Kim Huntzinger
kimberly_huntzinger@...

_________________________________________________________________
Add a Yahoo! contact to Windows Live Messenger for a chance to win a free
trip!
http://www.imagine-windowslive.com/minisites/yahoo/default.aspx?locale=en-us&hmt\
agline

Announcing the newly expanded Halictus guide on Discover Life.  It now
includes all the species in North America north of Mexico.  Please use it
soon and provide feedback.  Below is the link to the guide.

http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Halictus

Thank you,

Kim Huntzinger
kimberly_huntzinger@...

_________________________________________________________________
Stay in touch with old friends and meet new ones with Windows Live Spaces
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live.com/spacesapi.aspx?wx_action=create&wx_url=/friends.aspx&mkt=en-us

Was just looking at your Perdita key (way cool!) and also noted that this
page: (where one is introduced to the bees):

http://pick5.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?act=x_ant&name=Apoidea&path=Insecta/Hymenoptera\
/Apoidea&common_name=Bees&xml=Agapostemon;Apoidea_genera;Augochlora;Augochlorell\
a;Augochloropsis;Bee_genera_KSEM;Bumblebees;Green_bees;Groups_Insecta;North_Amer\
ican_Invasives;&btx

includes a link to Dasypodidae (armadillos). Is there something I'm
missing? Thought you might want to fix that....

Jerry
__________________________
Jerry Freilich, Ph.D.
Research & Monitoring Coordinator
Olympic National Park
600 E. Park Ave.
Port Angeles, WA 98362

Phone:   360-565-3082
Fax:        360-565-3070
Cell:        360-477-3338
Jerry_Freilich@...

"This is the most beautiful place on earth,
   there are many such places..."
                                          Edward Abbey
___________________________



                       Sam Droege
                       <sdroege@...>        To:       apoidea@...,
VA-MD-DE-Bugs@yahoogroups.com, pollinator@...,
                       Sent by:                   ENTOMO-L@...,
beemonitoring@yahoogroups.com
                       beemonitoring@yaho        cc:       (bcc: Jerry
Freilich/OLYM/NPS)
                       ogroups.com               Subject:  [beemonitoring] New -
Guide to U.S. and Canadian Bees of the Genus Perdita


                       12/11/2006 03:20
                       PM EST
                       Please respond to
                       beemonitoring






                               Announcing the




   Guide to the Identification of the U.S. and Canadian Bees in the Genus
                                   Perdita

                        East of the Mississippi River


                        Rebekah Nelson and Sam Droege


    (With plenty of help from many museum collections and bee researchers
                          throughout North America)


Perdita males:

http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Perdita_male

Perdita females:

http://pick4.pick.uga.edu/mp/20q?guide=Perdita_female


More species specific text, pictures and illustrations will be added later.


Questions and suggestions always welcome.

Sam Droege  Sam_Droege@...
w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705
Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

The Plover and the Clover can be told
      apart with ease,
By paying close attention to the
      habits of the Bees,
For ento-molo-gists aver, the Bee
      can be in clover,
While ety-molo-gists concur, there
      is no B in Plover.

    -Robert Williams Wood - The Clover and the Plover

(Embedded image moved to file: pic07007.gif)

Thanks Sam. Great resource. Am hoping to bee able to attend bee class in
Feb.

Craig

>>> sdroege@... 12/19/2006 10:12:26 AM >>>
All:

Attached is a list of the common bees of the Washington D.C. area,
based
on our surveys over the past several years.  While we do plan to
publish a
complete list at some point, you know how that goes, there is always
another bee to find, and old specimens to track down and verify.  In
the
meantime, after a few years it becomes clear what the generally common

species are.  That list is very useful to those just beginning to do
ecological, inventory, monitoring, or research work.

Consequently, I would like to challenge the other bee researchers out
there to do something similar for their research regions or where they

live.  Format doesn't really matter.  Although I don't have a web site

where we can post such things I bet Gretchen LeBuhn or someone else
does.....

Just think about how handy that list would have been when you
started.....

Thanks.

sam


Sam Droege  Sam_Droege@...
w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov

On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness

The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls
Of mastodons, are billiard balls.

The sword of Charlemagne the Just
Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust.

The grizzly bear, whose potent hug,
Was feared by all, is now a rug.

Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf,
And I don't feel so well myself.

         -- Arthur Guiterman

Sam:

If you don't find a better place to post it, I could post the common
bees of Washington, DC list as a separate web page on my own web
site, which includes my ongoing list of bees from my field station
(http://people.virginia.edu/~thr8z/Bee_Diversity/Blandy_Bee_Diversity.php).
It would be best, however, to have it as part of a broader
compilation, if anyone has one or is working on one.

T'ai

At 10:12 AM 12/19/2006, you wrote:


>All:
>
>Attached is a list of the common bees of the Washington D.C. area,
>based on our surveys over the past several years.  While we do plan
>to publish a complete list at some point, you know how that goes,
>there is always another bee to find, and old specimens to track down
>and verify.  In the meantime, after a few years it becomes clear
>what the generally common species are.  That list is very useful to
>those just beginning to do ecological, inventory, monitoring, or
>research work.
>
>Consequently, I would like to challenge the other bee researchers
>out there to do something similar for their research regions or
>where they live.  Format doesn't really matter.  Although I don't
>have a web site where we can post such things I bet Gretchen LeBuhn
>or someone else does.....
>
>Just think about how handy that list would have been when you started.....
>
>Thanks.
>
>sam
>
>
>Sam Droege  Sam_Droege@...
>w 301-497-5840 h 301-390-7759 fax 301-497-5624
>USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
>BARC-EAST, BLDG 308, RM 124 10300 Balt. Ave., Beltsville, MD  20705
>Http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov
>
>On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
>
>The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls
>Of mastodons, are billiard balls.
>
>The sword of Charlemagne the Just
>Is Ferric Oxide, known as rust.
>
>The grizzly bear, whose potent hug,
>Was feared by all, is now a rug.
>
>Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf,
>And I don't feel so well myself.
>
>         -- Arthur Guiterman
>
>


T'ai Roulston
Asst. Prof., Dept. Env. Sciences
University of Virginia
Associate Director
Blandy Experimental Farm www.virginia.edu/blandy
400 Blandy Farm Lane
Boyce, Va. 22620 USA
Ph# (540) 837-1758 ext 276 Fax (540) 837-1523
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~thr8z/HomePage.html