Melitta melittoides, m, face, Anne Arundel, MD
The unassuming male of Melitta melittoides. Looks like an Andrena to most, but with a roundish head, it lacks a few technical Andrena details, technical enough that I would have to look that up. Uncommon loiterer around Lyonia shrubs in bloom, where this one was found, and where the females gather the only pollen they feed their young (or so we think), which is.... Lyonia pollen (duh). No Lyonia, no M. melittoides. Lyonia is a decent, heath family shrub, which is not very available in the commercial trade, so it is up to you to find, grow, and propagate this shrub so that you can support M. melittoides. Our friend here is from Maryland on a powerline where shrubs such as Lyonia are allowed to live and thrive....unlike other powerlines where they are cut and herbicided. An unconscious biodiversity removal strategy that we can change with education.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr