Macropis ciliata, side, f, nh, veit, powerline
A set of male and female Macropis ciliata from NH, collected by Michael Veit on transmission lines...part of a David Wagner study of bees and transmission. This bee is special. Not as common as it once was and a specialist on Lysimachia natives. These plants produce oils that the Macropis add to their pollen balls for their babies. No Lysimachia...no Macropis. Males have yellow on the head ...females do not...check out the hunky legs of the males too.
Beauty is nature's fact.
- Emily Dickinson. Original public domain image from Flickr