A gorgeous bee. (Bombus borealis worker visiting Astragalus, from this afternoon)

Hibiscus turret #bee (Ptilothrix bombiformis) season is here in the ATL! These look a lot like bumblebees, which is what "bombiformis" means in Latin. Males are very willing to have their photos taken while they sip nectar and accidentally spread pollen around. They're called turret bees... #bugsky

Our second season of fieldwork on Colletes andrewsi is off to a great start. This is one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on as we continue to learn about the biology and population ecology of this special bee. Pictured: a marked female approaching her nest

🐝Researchers documented the nesting and foraging #biology of Andrew's Plasterer #Bee (Colletes andrewsi), a rare specialised species. See what the researchers found in our open-access article: doi.org/10.3897/jhr....

Happy to announce a new paper published on the nesting biology and foraging distance of Colletes andrewsi One really cool thing we did was mark individual bees to measure how far they foraged from the nesting aggregation. More exciting stuff is in the works! jhr.pensoft.net/article/1895...

Lavish bonuses, first-class flights, and a ghost mansion: Inside the unraveling of the California Academy of Sciences sfstandard.com/2026/05/26/c...

Bombus auricomus on Solomon's seal, though the pollen is from Lamium

For this #WorldBeeDay, I present this noted innovator Ceratina small carpenter bee who thought “Collecting pollen with six limbs is fine, but if I also use my tongue as a seventh-“ Presented in actual frantic speed vision. [Alameda, CA 5-15-26] #bees #nativebees

A lovely Bombus rufocinctus queen visiting Hydrophyllum from today :)

I am regularly seeing male Longhorn bees in the usual spots, so females emerging must be just days away now… [Alameda, CA 5-8-26] #bees #nativebees

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

My first rufo of the year :)

🌻 hoary puccoon 🌿 Lithospermum canescens #nativeplants #ecoregion71

A Bombus bimaculatus queen visiting honeyberry flowers 😊

Equally tiny and (to me) more surprising bee on the same flower - smallest Andrena miner #bee I’ve ever seen, thought it was a small sweat bee until I looked at the photos. (On Sisyrinchium angustifolium, blue-eyed grass.) #bugsky #macrophotography #bloomscrolling #nativeplants

The first Bombus I photographed this year was a B. occidentalis in the wax currant! #rockcreekbc

Massive and important positive news... #NSF #GRFP awards are out. 2,599 awards! + 1,440 Honorable Mentions. A significant boost from last year. Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)! & many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible. www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...

Busy day at the Colletes inaequalis nesting aggregation. Feels like spring is officially here :)

Tiny #bee on a tiny flower - female Ceratina strenua small carpenter bee on Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium). (Photo taken today at Wylde center) #pollination #bugsky #insects #nativeplants #bloomscrolling

colletes inaequalis update from this evening

Change your focus, change your life. ~•~ Male Globemallow Bee (Diadasia diminuta) in Apricot Globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua). 🌿 #Invertebrates

If you're in need of a bit of color this morning, here's a metallic green sweat bee who wants all the pollen. Anza-Borrego Desert, California. #Bugsky 🌿🐙🐝🌼

So within three hours after I took the photo that I just posted of the first open blossom on our mock orange, a male Chelostoma philadelphus mock orange scissor bee claimed it! Couldn’t get a clear shot without disturbing him but there is no doubt what it is. The first of many! #bees #nativeplants

I would greatly appreciate anyone amplifying this or contributing. The Alex Pretti nursing scholarship is being created. An endowed scholarship awarded to a student with financial need. Preference will be given to students with an interest in supporting America's veterans. Link below. Thank you.

Photo stacking is taking a series of shots at different focus points and combining them to create more depth of field. L is a stack of only 2 shots, R is 6 shots. Which do you prefer? I like the L, but there's no right answer. (Male Hesperapis sp. native bee asleep in a flower at night) 🐙🌿📷 #BugSky

Saw my first Colletes inaequalis of the season today! Earliest I've ever seen them in MN. Smashed my previous earliest record of Mar 29th set in 2001.

On taxonomist appreciation day, I take comfort in knowing that generations of taxonomists have also had to deal with scientists confounding identification and taxonomy plus abysmal levels funding and support. Excerpts from Slater (1960), which has many parts that read like they were written today:

My big monograph is finally out in @ejtaxonomy.bsky.social right on #taxonomistappreciationday! 169 new species of flat wasps from Australia, many of them with remarkable head modifications for seeking their hosts. So excited to see this published after 8 years, available free and open access. 🧪

Bees visiting blueberries in the yard yesterday! Two-spotted bumblebee queen (Bombus bimaculatus) and male southeastern blueberry bee (Habropoda laboriosa.) #bees #bugsky #bloomscrolling #insects

The redbud trees are apparently where the action is. Colletes inaequalis, unequal cellophane bees, from this afternoon. #bees #bugsky #flyday #insects

Good article, but the framing is wrong. There is not a dearth of interest in taxonomy. There is a scarcity of funding and positions, which is a deliberate choice by funding agencies and institutions. The youth love taxonomy! It's the olds that are failing to meet their passion!

Our beloved fence pets are back. [Xylocopa sonorina male, Alameda, CA 2-28-26] #bees #nativebees

The bee season has also begun here. Many queen bumblebees (Bombus terrestris, B. pratorum, B. lapidarius and B. hypnorum) and solitary bees (Andrena vaga, A. bicolor, Xylocopa violacea, Osmia cornuta) have been flying around Braunschweig since this week. #BeesUp

1st HFFB! We have seen Hairy-footed Flower bees (Anthophora plumipes) in late February before but always males, so surprised to find a female buzzing around the Pulmonarias yesterday before taking a break on a rustic leaf 🐝🙂. @brigitstrawbridge.bsky.social

Warmth can also be a floral reward. On sunny windless days the air "trapped" within daffodil flowers is ~3°C warmer than the exterior. Earlier today Andrena bicolor bees made brief stops within Narcissus bulbocodium flowers to gain some of the heat lost during flight

Job tools I dislike: - computer - email - calendar - word processor Job tools I like: - microscope - colored micron pens

The ICE surge in Minnesota isn’t over — it just moved outside of the Metro. ICE agents are still terrorizing innocent people in the suburbs. They’re targeting bus stops and hospitals and parks and being more deceptive than ever. This isn’t over until ICE is out of the ENTIRE state.

Newly published: a letter that continues the discussion of “ghost records” and continues our push for good practices and replicability in bee research and monitoring: “Ghost records and unverifiable specimen data hinder bee research: a reply to Cobb et al.” doi.org/10.1093/aesa...

We got one little rain storm and all the tiny silly wasps are out again and I'm very pleased 🤎 These lovely little Encyrtids are pretty common and I love to see their comically large antennae flapping as they run. This lass was grooming hers.

Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.

#FebuArty #Fuzzy #Inverts #Bee 🐝 A Fuzzy Half-balck Bumble

This is just insane. It’s only a matter of time before DHS kills another innocent person here. (clip via MPR and @davidjbier.bsky.social on X)

Two more students from Liam Ramos' school are now in ICE detention, joining their mother who was detained first. The school principal "said the boys cried when he told them what was happening and were frightened and asked to hold a school nurse’s hand when they walked into the Whipple Building."

NEW: Minnesota's federal judges have been inundated — and become increasingly alarmed — by cases stemming from the Trump administration's deportation surge in the Twin Cities. Now they're poised to decide whether the surge can continue at all. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

Female Brown-winged striped sweat bee (Agapostemon splendens) on Camphorweed (Heterotheca subaxillaris) 10-13-25 Bowditch Point Park Fort Meyers Beach, Florida #MacroMonday #eastcoastkin #native #bees #flowers #pollinators #macro #photography #bloomscrolling #art #macroPhotography #bugsky #nature

I found this bit, by a journalist who has written about CBP and ICE for many years, to be really instructive on how shockingly and persistently lawless those agencies, and especially CBP, have been for their entire existence, for more or less the same reason. www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/ice-101-ho...

I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening. The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.

A coworker took this from her apartment. I haven't seen a crowd this size before. Maybe the first Women's March? But it was much much warmer that day. ICE OUT OF MINNESOTA!

Great interview with Krystle Hickman, a wonderful photographer & community scientist who I'm lucky to know. She first learned about native bees as an adult and is not a trained scientist, and has since made important scientific contributions and inspired countless people (including me). 🌿🐙📷 #BugSky

As clergy pray, arrests begin