Favoritos de beesearcher

bidentate, spots all the way down tergites but much smaller than maculata

voucher specimens have 3-4 long tibial spines, not like maculata

potentially relevant Andrena in the area included heraclei, nasonii, cressonii - have picked up lepida-ish Nomada in the vicinity of Andrena rugosa nesting before. Suspect Trachandrena as host(s?).

This fuzzy little guy (c. 8 mm) keeps keying out as A. erythrogaster, which would be a new species for Dukes County/Martha's Vineyard. It seems a bit small, with the vertex rather long for that species. But apparently all-black males like this are not uncommon. Cheek shape; long, thin, reddish basitarsi; fairly short clypeus with dense pitting and a magnificent brush of pale hair; F1 slightly longer than F2; terga with no apical fascia and depressed, reddish hyaline margins; sternal subapical fimbriae with sparse long hairs, interrupted medially; and long. slender mandibles with prominent subapical teeth are among the erythrogaster-like traits I was able to capture. Collected from Epigaea repens.

Pan trap
ID notes:

• pronotum with orthogonal dorsolateral angle
• preapical tooth on mandible (fig 4)
• lacking to sparse scopal hairs on hind legs (fig 5)
• veritically lineate sculpturing on mesepisternum (fig 6)

A petal-cutting sequence: she cut a neat strip from one of the petals of Oenothera macrocarpa. Unfortunately, I came along after most of the work had already been accomplished.

The first image is not in focus, but some of the subsequent shots are fairly sharp. I never got an image of dorsal tergum 6, so identification may be complicated; for what it's worth, notice that tergum 6 is clearly concave (note the "tail" visible in the first 3 images). There are also shots that give a surprising amount of detail about the dentation of the mandibles and the structure of the tarsi.

Pretty sure. Hair on thorax seemed not quite as pale as barbara (and a bit more rufous-y toned?), which also emerged over a month ago at 2 aggregations I know and are extremely worn by now. Photos also show differences in wing venation vs barbara (posterior and anterior sides of sm cell 2 much longer relative to 3 in perplexa than in barbara) and, I think (surprisingly) the pronotal angle.