Diario de cappaert

This ID was caught by August Jackson on iNaturalist. CHLOROSMIA is a subgenus of metallic species. On re-examining, the parapsidal line is linear. An apical medial spine on last terga fits Hoplitis louisae.

Is it just worn? No, 3 specimens exhibit this feature.

Both John Asher and August Jackson ID'd as Lasioglossum ovaliceps. Lisa Robinson pointed out: scopae on this Lasioglossum - key difference from Sphecodes.

For the pinned Osmia I usually see, the mandibles are closed and features obscured. A major issue for Osmia, because mandibles are key in the keys. Going forward, I will mount Osmia with a mandible exposed. That is hard to do without popping off the head, which I will look for under my desk, only to find that there a number of bee heads to sort through. A good work-around if you have a series of one species: crush the head of one of the extras, and glue the head+mandibles to a separate pin.

Photo links here: The mandibles of an Osmia which tell me:

• Polygonal shape;
• Parallel basal ridges, of equal size;
• Cutting edge not differentiated from upper tooth;
• Ratio of margins of lower and next tooth

anterior view, and lateral view

I've only seen this Nomada cousin once before. A good example of how what you see in a city garden can surprise.

I didn't know about the foreleg apparatus bees use to clean their antennae. Until I ran into the value of the character in the DiscoverLife Osmia key. There is an excellent description in NATURAL HISTORY AND ECONOMY OF THE BEES Indigenous to the British Isles. W. E. SHUCKARD, 1866.

...on the anterior tibiæ of all the bees, there is, within, a small velum, or sail, as it has been called; this is a small angular appendage affixed within the spur by its base. At the base of the palmæ of the same legs, and opposite the play of this velum, there is a deep sinus, or curved incision, the strigilis, called thus or the curry-comb, from the pecten, or comb of short stiff hair which fringes its edge. Upon this aperture the velum can act at the will of the insect, and combined they form a circular orifice. The object of this apparatus is to keep the antennæ clean, for the insect, when it wishes to cleanse one or the other of them, lays it within this sinus of the palma, and then, pressing the velum of the spur upon it, removes, by the combined action of the comb and the velum, all excrescences or soilure from it, and this process it repeats until satisfied with the cleanliness of the organ.

My photo below, and a far more elegant drawing from an 1878 publication of the British Bee Journal (along with additional flowery 19th Century discussion of pollen collection).

The Oregon Bee Atlas has an iNaturalist project. It is really just a database filter: it accumulates any bee images from Oregon. You could add such a filter to your own iNaturalist dashboard, which would flood you with observations - 18 from yesterday, half Bombus. With the OBA project, you can just occasionally scroll back a week for any really interesting finds.

Even more useful, details on the zillion specimens processed by OBA in 2019: Oregon Bee Atlas: wild bee findings from 2019. The scope of the OBA collection is impressive. More recent data coming.