Epeoloides pilosulus is one of only two species in the bee genus Epeoloides; it is kleptoparasitic in the nests of melittid bees of the genus Macropis. Known to exist in only a handful of localities in the northeastern United States and adjacent parts of Canada, this species is classified as Endangered by the State of Connecticut.[1]
| Epeoloides pilosulus | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Epeoloides |
| Species: | E. pilosulus
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| Binomial name | |
| Epeoloides pilosulus (Cresson, 1878)
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| Synonyms | |
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E. pilosulus lacks the dense patches of appressed scutum hairs of the genera Triepeolus and Epeolus.[2] On the wing, the marginal cell and its apex touch the wing margin, but the cell is more abruptly truncated than in other, similar bees.[2]
History and status
editThis species was once widely distributed in the northern and eastern United States and southern Canada, but virtually no records existed after 1960, leading to speculation that this species was extinct, until it was found in 2002 in Nova Scotia, and more recently from a power line right-of-way in Connecticut.[3] In 2019 while surveying pollinators as part of an inventory of native bees in the Great Lakes region, three males were found in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest near Lakewood, Wisconsin.[4]
References
edit- ^ Connecticut’s Endangered, Threatened and Special Concern Species 2015. State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Natural Resources. 2015. 11 pp.
- ^ a b Droege, Sam (September 2015). The Very Handy Manual: How to Catch and Identify Bees. USGS.
- ^ Cuckoo bees: Epeoloides pilosula (Cresson 1878) Archived 2014-03-15 at the Wayback Machine The Xerces Society.
- ^ "Rare bee not seen in Wisconsin in a century is spotted in forest". StarTribune. Archived from the original on 2019-08-23.