dmantack's Favorites

Keys discretely to O. cordata via Mitchell (1962), Discoverlife, and Sandhouse’s ancient (1934) key to subgenera and species. Aligns with all available descriptions. Diagnostic features pictured include coarse and often contiguous/confluent punctures of scutum, golden scopa, facial features (including mandible/flat clypeus rim), narrow but definite impunctate area along apical rims of terga, evenly pubescent terminal tergite with fine punctures and without an apical fascia. Several individuals were visiting Penstemon digitalis. They either had deeply yellow, yellow-orange, or even rust-yellow scopa, further fitting with available descriptions.

I also found O. albiventris at this site; I show it side by side a cordata to demonstrate the differences in punctation and size; I also photographed it beside an O. pumila for additional size comparison. Osmia cordata clearly differs from the two, and its mandible (pictured) also clearly fits with the form drawn by Sandhouse (1934), separating it from O. sandhouseae. In the Discoverlife key, sorting by yellow scopa and flat clypeal margin was sufficient to get to cordata. T6 was not fasciate, ruling out conjuncta/subfasciata; the lack of a tuberculate space between antennae also disqualified conjuncta for this series.

I think a first record for TN. However, a certified record occurs just over the mountains in NC (bowl trap; GBIF), so this TN specimen still seems to fill into the range sensibly. Mitchell (1962) says Colorado to Ohio.

This male indeed keys to C. productus by Mitchell (1960): long malar space; basal tergum shining with sparse punctures; punctures of scutum minute and widely separated, spaces between them wide and shining.

S7 also as in productus, the photo I added is pretty poor and gives bad perspective, but at least shows the distinct notch.

Fourth observation of this species since 6/26 on same Nepeta cataria patch (photo 3) near cabins. Park is only recorded iNat location in Westchester for A. abrupta. Have not been able to locate nesting areas. The large shoreline nesting aggregation recorded in 2017 has since been lost to erosion: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/184562063

Would seem that the roadside patch of Nepeta is valuable forage and should be preserved - it has also been consistently visited by A. terminalis. Have asked Park staff to stop throwing cut tree limbs onto edge.

Site of known population. Multiple individuals netted off of American chestnut catkins and observed collecting chestnut pollen. All visible characteristics (see pitting on scutum and T1/T2, form of foveae, etc) match verified specimens taken from this site last year:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193331980
No other Andrena species observed or captured at this site during our visits.

Found in a shell under a bush, buried in leaves, was very docile and beautiful. Stayed with me for like 45 mins, crawled out onto my hand to tell me when he had to go, flew similar to a beetle steady n straight.

I saw this lone bee returning to pollinate sheep laurel. There was another one of these bees but it didn't want to be bothered.

@dmantack Any idea if this is the specialist bee? I might have to come out in the morning to see more of them.

This was on the small area that seem to be the most undisturbed of the sand dunes with a consistency like beach sand and like the sand plain in Bloomfield. It was less a mixture of sand and silt and other fine material. The plant was not very abundant in this area or elsewhere but we did see more specimens up on some of the hills. This one had a single pinkish purple flower. It also had structures that looked kind of like bean pods.