Fwd: Virgin Islands Species Summary and Data

[Sam Droege]

Beemonitoring people:  Below is an email I sent to a virgin islands bees listserv we put together.  It may be of interest to some of you and you are welcome to email me if you want to join that listserv.  The Virgin Islands Bee listserv is there to discuss occurrence, distribution, identification, conservation, and taxonomy of bees from the Virgin Islands...and that can in its broadest sense include the Bees of Puerto Rico as well.

txs

sam

---------------

All

I have gone through all the literature I can find (thank you Julio for some obscure additions) that reference bee species found in the Virgin Islands.  I have not directly targeted the islands in the British Virgin Islands so would expect that I may have missed some English literature.  Additions welcome.

I will try to zip up all that literature and send it in another email.

The attached excel file contains data from the literature, GBIF, the USGS Bee Lab, and iNaturalist.

Note:  some iNaturalist data is present in GBIF, but not all, I checked iNaturalist data online and added any island records that were new that had legitimate records (these did not add much of interest).

I created two tables.

One table "Island Table" contains a master list of bee species possibly present and their occurrence on each island.  Note that the lovely island complex that makes up the British Virgin Islands was simply lumped together under the "British Virgin Islands". More work throughout the British Virgin Island would be very interesting.  Note that most of the species present in the Virgin Islands were detected on the quite small Guana Island by Roy Snelling...an indication that most species are probably present on most of the largerish islands. 

The other table "USGS Counts" shows the specimen counts for each island that I collected.  Note that each island was visited 3 times for 10 days except St. John which has had only 1 visit so far (2 more to come this year).  The counts here give some idea about the apparent commonness of bees on the islands, but the possibility remains that some species' counts are not representative of their commonness due to my inability to detect them.

There are also a number of taxonomic issues.  Those are listed below.

Centris analis - Could be this species but could also be C. aff. lanipes

Centris aff. lanipes - Different people have assigned different species names to this species.  For now we leave it as C. aff. lanipes until further work comes in on its proper name.

Exomalopsis analis / E. pulchella - Both these species have scopal hairs that are partially dark.  I am uncertain which species is correct (am leaning towards E. analis) or that perhaps both are/were present.

Exomalopsis similis/ E. pubescens - Both these species have completely pale scopal hairs and I am similarly unclear as to which species is present or whether both are/were present.

Hylaeus interesting - This refers to an unnamed species of Hylaeus that has now likely been found in Puerto Rico, St. John, St. Thomas and on 2 islands in the British Virgin Islands.  Specimens have been sent to both Genaro and Gibbs for preliminary work on this species' name.

Hylaeus wootoni - Only 1 specimen has been found of this western mainland North American species.  I am leaning towards considering it not a viable member of the fauna at this point.

Megachile alleni alleni, Megachile near poeyi, Megachile interesting - These are all in Pseudocentron and all related and similarly looking to M. holosericea.  My "Megachile interesting" are all males and I found a few on St. Croix and St. Thomas that were clearly different from the more regularly occurring M. holosericea.  M. near poeyi and M. alleni alleni are all from relatively older specimes and could relate to those existing species or to misidentified specimens of M. holosericea (Julio has pointed out in his paper on the bees of Puerto Rico that this group often contains misidentifications and of the possible species mentioned here (he only gives M. holosericea as being present on Puerto Rico).  Several Megachile in existing collections from the islands are simply listed as Megachile species and warrant further examination.  In any case there are at least 2 similar Pseudocentrons on the islands and it will be fun to figure out what they are.  Note: M. luctifera (a strikingly black bee) is also a Pseudocentron but no one would misidentify it as one of these species.

 

Megachile rufipennis - This species is very similar to M. lanata and did not show up in any of the recent surveys.  Julio mentions it is present on St. Croix, but it would be worth pulling any specimens (2 specimens at Kansas are in GBIF) for a lookly looky.

Melissodes nigroaenea - This is a South American species and it was listed in Snelling's report in 2005 on the bees of Guana Island.  Seems almost certain that this is likely referring to M. trifasciatus.

Mesoplia aff. rufipes, Mesoplia bifrons - As Julio indicates in 2008 that the species involved and their proper names is messy and needs more work.  Unclear at this point what name to use.

Conclusions for now.  There are roughly 23 species of bees in the Virgin Islands complex.  These species all seem to be a subset of the bees of Puerto Rico (the mystery Megachile may be an exception, but probably not) which makes sense since most (but not St. Croix) were joined or nearly so to Puerto Rico during the last glacial maximum.  It also appears that these species could generally be considered to occur on all the islands.  In all cases another island is visible from any of the islands you choose to stand on.  The fact that the introduced Megachile concinna and M. lanata appear to have made it to all the islands is testiment to bees ability to move themselves around.

sam

Seen from Above

A dead beetle lies on the path through the field.

Three pairs of legs folded neatly on its belly.

Instead of death's confusion, tidiness and order.

The horror of this sight is moderate,

its scope is strictly local, from the wheat grass to the mint.

The grief is quarantined.

The sky is blue.

To preserve our peace of mind, animals die

more shallowly: they aren't deceased, they're dead.

They leave behind, we'd like to think, less feeling and less world,

departing, we suppose, from a stage less tragic.

Their meek souls never haunt us in the dark,

they know their place,

they show respect.

And so the dead beetle on the path

lies unmourned and shining in the sun.

One glance at it will do for meditation --

clearly nothing much has happened to it.

Important matters are reserved for us,

for our life and our death, a death

that always claims the right of way.

        - Wislawa Szymborska

[Neil S Cobb]

Sam, this is really great. Do you think there might be interest in having a larger group putting together a list for the Caribbean region? Given the current work that's being done in Southern Dutch Caribbean Islands and the decent amount of data from Cuba, there might be critical mass. 

Neil

Neil S. Cobb,

Biodiversity Outreach Network  Office: 11 W Silver Spruce Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001-3541       ID  84-2609936

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[laurence packer]

Greetings

 

Well done Sam!

 

I worked a little a couple of years ago on the bees of Trinidad and Tobago - they did some

sampling there and based on a comparison of what they found and the records that

Jack Neff has, there's a bunch of interesting species from there - including likely undescribed

Monoeca, Ceratina, among others and a single record of Cleptommation - but no records of its

likely potential hosts! I have a draft key to the genera - females only, not sure whether that

would be of any use. I'll check if I can share it.

 

keep up the good work

 

laurence

 

 

Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2026 at 10:23 AM
From: "Neil S Cobb" <neil...@gmail.com>
To: "Sam Droege" <droe...@gmail.com>
Cc: "beemonitoring" <beemon...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [Beemonitoring] Fwd: Virgin Islands Species Summary and Data

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/beemonitoring/CACmApPinx0x2%2BJvXPfwb%3D%3D02W%2B9ea8p3%3D8%3Doc%3D4qjvtjEDrFRg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jason Gibbs]

I have a grad student working on Lasioglossum from various islands in the Lesser Antilles. Any halictids from the region (or beyond) are welcome. I have an apparently undescribed Sphecodes from Puerto Rico on my desk.

Jason Gibbs | Associate Professor | Curator

J. B. Wallis / R. E. Roughley Museum of Entomology 

Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
12 Dafoe Rd. Animal Science/Entomology Bldg

Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada 

(he/him/his) 

 

I live and work in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis .

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[Sara Prado]

Hi all,

Adding Elif to the conversation, as she’s describing a Specodes I collected.

Sara Prado


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[Daniel Kjar]

Many years ago I had some students scan through some literature kept in the library at the Gerace Research Center and I produced a searchable database of species recorded 'found' in the Bahamas.  We kept with the names used in the literature so be aware that many of these might no longer be valid.  Hopefully the spelling is correct.  If you search for 'hymenoptera' you will get a list of all the taxa we found in the papers we had and the references are listed for each species in the table with a reference list at the bottom.  This list is limited to the Bahamas of course.

https://bio2.elmira.edu/bahamas

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Dr. Daniel Kjar

Coordinator of Academic Advising
Professor of Biology
Elmira College
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[Henry Steig]

Hi everyone,

Adding some localities of Ceratina from various Caribbean islands that have sat in Cornell's undetermined drawers for many decades. There seem to be few records of this group from the Caribbean, and I would be surprised if they were not present in the Virgin Islands. 

Trinidad: Ceratina auriviridis, Ceratina guarnacciana, Ceratina (Crewella) sp.

Cuba: Ceratina auriviridis, Ceratina cyaniventris

Jamaica: Ceratina guarnacciana

Bahamas: Ceratina cyaniventris, Ceratina cockerelli

Dominican Republic: Ceratina cyaniventris, Ceratina guarnacciana

Key Largo, FLA: Ceratina cockerelli

Henry Steig

Department of Entomology, Cornell University

[Thomas Onuferko]

Hi Sam,

In the Natural History Museum of Denmark, there is a single (male) specimen of Brachymelecta (formerly Xeromelecta) tibialis collected on St. Croix by "Eggers." We included the record in our revision of the genus: Onuferko, Thomas M., Packer, Laurence, Genaro, Julio A. (2021): Brachymelecta Linsley, 1939, previously the rarest North American bee genus, was described from an aberrant specimen and is the senior synonym for Xeromelecta Linsley, 1939. European Journal of Taxonomy 754: 1-51, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2021.754.1393. All the other specimens of that species I have examined are from Puerto Rico, with the possible exception of one that only indicates "American Isles" on the collection label. The suspected host is Anthophora tricolor, which is known from both Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.

Cheers,

Tom

On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 9:55 AM Sam Droege <droe...@gmail.com> wrote:

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Thomas Onuferko, PhD

Research Associate, Zoology, Canadian Museum of Nature

[Droege, Sam]

Tom

 

What a great and interesting record.  Makes sense given it is on Puerto Rico. 

 

There are indications that Anthophora tricolor was very common 100 years ago with many records for that species on the Virgin Islands.  As noted, in my previous message, this species has become very uncommon now.  I now only know of one location on St. John for Anthophora and even after 30 days of collecting on both St. Thomas and St. Croix had no records for either island.

 

Appreciate the record!

 

Sam

 

             Anniversary on the Island

             

              The long waves glide in through the afternoon

              while we watch from the island

              from the cool shadow under the trees where the long ridge

              a fold in the skirt of the mountain

              runs down to the end of the headland

             

              day after day we wake to the island

              the light rises through the drops on the leaves

              and we remember like birds where we are

              night after night we touch the dark island

              that once we set out for

             

              and lie still at last with the island in our arms

              hearing the leaves and the breathing shore

              there are no years any more

              only the one mountain

              and on all sides the sea that brought us

             

                    - W.S. Merwin

 

From: beemon...@googlegroups.com <beemon...@googlegroups.com> On Behalf Of Thomas Onuferko
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2026 11:00 AM
To: droe...@gmail.com
Cc: beemon...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Re: [Beemonitoring] Fwd: Virgin Islands Species Summary and Data

 

 

This email has been received from outside of DOI - Use caution before clicking on links, opening attachments, or responding.

 

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[Shelby Kilpatrick]

Hi everyone, 

I hope you're having a nice week!

I have a checklist of bees of the Commonwealth of Dominica in preparation, with co-authors Jason Gibbs and James Woolley, as which builds on my undergraduate study abroad research. If anyone has any specimen data from this island that they would be able to contribute to our project, please let me know!

Sam, please add me to the new listserv when you have a moment. Thanks in advance!

Additionally, Neil, if there is interest in a broader Caribbean bee checklist, I am interested in being considered as a collaborator.

Sincerely, 

Shelby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shelby K. Kilpatrick

Ph.D. Candidate in Entomology
B.S. in Entomology and Agricultural Leadership & Development

Texas A&M University

ePortfolio: https://shelbykkilpatrick.weebly.com/

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[Neil S Cobb]

Shelby,

Thanks for the interest, it seems good to explore the possibility of a Caribbean project (or what I call greater Caribbean including Trinidad & Tobago, the Dutch islands, Bahamas).  I am actually most interested in comparing mainland and island assemblages, but that can be folded into a Caribbean perspective. We have decent data from Florida (US mainland) down through Colombia, and as far as I know, northern South America minus Venezuela is ok. I think other embedded areas of interest for me include "bee assemblages without andrenids", invasives, dispersal traits....... make it a really interesting project. I reached out to a few people from Cuba who might be interested. I would suggest putting existing knowledge together and seeing what is possible and what people want to do. A quick back-of-the-envelope shows 48% of the Caribbean species are also recorded from Colombia through the US.  Regardless of critical mass, I will send you and anyone else interested an assessment from me as to how much critical mass there is for a reasonable scope and if a group of people want to move forward that would be good.

Cheers,

Neil

Neil S. Cobb,

Biodiversity Outreach Network  Office: 11 W Silver Spruce Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001-3541       ID  84-2609936

Summer Bug Camps  iDigBees TCN 

Mobile Office - Text & WhatsApp: 928-607-4075    

Zoom Office:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81630476460

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[Jenn Rose]

Hi Neil,

While it’s not technically the Caribbean, I have conducted some work on Bermuda’s bee fauna. It’s a much smaller inventory (two species, to be exact), but it could offer another interesting point of comparison. I would be happy to contribute if including Bermuda is of interest.

Best, 

Jenn

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[Neil S Cobb]

Hi Jenn,

I think it would be good to add Bermuda, I sent emails to a few people including Julio Gerado and I hope to hear from him soon. Diego Almeida (copied) said he and Julio put together a Caribbean list and did some island size comparisons, but they never published it.  Regardless, there is enough critical mass to put something together, and I expect to send an email out to all interested parties in two weeks. It would also be nice to see if it was possible to use this as an opportunity to have some specimens digitized and/or IDed to species. Alexander Kroupa (copied) has 100's of MCNC Lasioglossum records only IDed to genus. 

Cheers,

Neil

Neil S. Cobb,

Biodiversity Outreach Network  Office: 11 W Silver Spruce Ave, Flagstaff, AZ 86001-3541       ID  84-2609936

Summer Bug Camps  iDigBees TCN 

Mobile Office - Text & WhatsApp: 928-607-4075    

Zoom Office:  https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81630476460

ORCID  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6155-9444

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[Jason Gibbs]

I can definitely help with Lasioglossum

Jason Gibbs | Associate Professor | Curator

J. B. Wallis / R. E. Roughley Museum of Entomology 

Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
12 Dafoe Rd. Animal Science/Entomology Bldg

Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada 

(he/him/his) 

 

I live and work in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis .