Melissodes near bimaculatus, f, virginia, pulaski county, face
Here is a Melissodes from Pulaski County, Virginia collected at the Radford Munitions Plant which is kept in high quality grasslands because they are good stewards. I would characterize the region as sitting at the tail end of the Shenandoah Valley in an area that in the long view had been open / grassland prairie something like this during Indian times and maybe even mastodon times.
Now it gets interesting (for me at least). This Melissodes (and another specimen collected in a different year) are very similar to M. bimaculata in terms of immediate looks. But, they are not and they seem to match no other Melissodes in the East.
Boring Bee Head details now follow:
In comparison they look almost exactly like M. bimaculata except for the following:
Size - clearly smaller, but larger than the M. druriella I have on hand.
Abdomen - no white patches on t2-6.
Propodeum - White hairs running from the base of the hind wings on the propodeum in the "triangle" area...these are all black in M. bimaculata
T1 - Most of the dorsal hairs are off-white, hairs on anterior face are black...everything is black on T1 in M. bimaculata
Hind Tibia - Hair entirely light colored and with a slight amber tinge...in M. bimaculata the inside edge is lined with black hairs
Wings - Noticeably less brown, but still slightly smoky.
What is it...I have pinged the experts and no one is sure.
To the DNA with this one.
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