Colletes latitarsis, M, Back, MD, Baltimore
Hiding in plain site. Is this Cellophane Bee... Colletes latitarsis is a bee that only feeds its babies pollen from the all american weed. Ground Cherry.... Physalis to you sciencey types. The thing about Physalis is that it is very shy about showing its sexual parts. The flowers dangle underneath its leafy roof and are this side of green for a yellow flower. And so, its favorite bee also escapes our attention and is so focused on this one plant that it almost never shows up in our color traps. But if you find the plant...you will find this cutie. Photos by Dejen Mengis and Brooke Alexander.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty - that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know
" Ode on a Grecian Urn"
John Keats. Original public domain image from Flickr