Is Hylaeus sparsus a pollen specialist?

[Droege, Sam]

Is Hylaeus sparsus a pollen specialist?

Jarrod Fowler (copied) has created lists of bees that are pollen specialists

East: Pollen Specialist Bees of the Eastern United States

Central: Pollen Specialist Bees of the Central United States

West: Pollen Specialist Bees of the Western United States

and even cuckoo bees who target specialist bees: Pollen Specialist Cuckoo Bees of the United States

"Specialist" needs a definition because each species has its predilections. So, if you primarily gather pollen from plants in a single family or below you can be defined as a "specialist." 

Information for uncommon species can prevent a species from getting listed and that might be true for some Hylaeus.

In general, Hylaeus are out for most of the growing months which makes them unlikely to fit a definition of specialist.  But. There is one Hylaeus that shows up on Jarrod's list ... H. basalis a northern specialist on potentilla.

Recently, I am wondering if H. sparsus should be on that list as an Apiaciae specialist as was pointed out by Sellers and McCarthy a while back.

Sellers, E. and McCarthy, D., 2015. Distribution and floral hosts of Anthophorula micheneri (Timberlake, 1947) and Hylaeus sparsus (Cresson, 1869),(Insecta: Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila), with new state records in Giles and Loudoun counties, Virginia, eastern USA. Check List, 11(3), pp.1-11.

Our lab has collected relatively few of this species, in fact just 12 out of several hundred thousand specimens.  Those collection have been in several locations and included netting, malaise, canopy traps but no bowls (Hylaeus are generally not that attracted to bowls on the ground).

Recently I collected bees off of Golden Alexanders (Zizia aurea) planted at my home and caught > 10 H. sparsus males and females.  I went to work and similarly collected another 10+ on the same plant.  I had not previously collected off these plants and they don't occur naturally nearby.  Other species in the carrot family do occur nearby but in the spring they tend to be species that are small, scattered, and overlooked (Sweet Cicely Ozmorhiza claytonii is a good example, common but not showy).  Certainly, summer Apiaceae support large numbers of Hylaeus of multiple species but we are talking spring here.

So, I am wondering what other folks have found H. sparsus using, and whether there has been much collecting on spring Apiaceae at all.

Additionally, it is also interesting to see that Apiaceae has no known bee "specialists" which throws some shade on that group supporting specialists or, are they simply the most convenient of plants for a little short tongued bee?

On the other hand, why only come out in spring if there are Apiaceae a plenty the rest of the year that your cousins are using?

While we are at it we might look at the only other spring Hylaeus that I am aware of in the East. ... H. georgicus, super rare.

On top of that there is the similar in appearance H. floridanus which has what appears to be a spring and a fall set of observations ... or, are there two species?

I look forward to your observations of

1. H. sparsus
2. Bees on spring Apiaceae
3. H. georgicus
4. H. floridanus

Note, go ahead and reply to the whole list...a topic of general interest.

Thanks

sam

Keep your Property Half Wild

Cell: 301 433 5390

Alternative email: droe...@gmail.com

 

[Michael Arduser]

Sam, here are the (only) plants we've collected female Hy. sparsus from in Missouri (1985-2025):

Taenidia integerrima

Sanicula greggaria

Osmorhiza longistylis

Zizia aurea, Z. aptera

All are Apiaceae; the majority of collections are from Zizia.

Also, Andrena ziziae and An. vernalis are specialists on (primarily) Zizia.

Mike

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[Davis, Jason M. (DNREC)]

Hi

 

Hope this helps!

 

All specimens collected in DE

collected a male Hylaeus sparsus from Zizia aurea along a river floodplain and another male in a bog either on either Salix nigra or an unknown white flower that Ill need to track down the picture for it for ID

collected a female Hylaeus floridanus in bowls adjacent to an interdunal swale, need to track down what was flowering at the time

collected a male Hylaeus floridanus on one of these plants (solidago, ny ironweed, verbena, common milkweed)

collected 2 male Hylaeus georgicus from Salix nigra

collected 1 male Hylaeus sparsus from Salix nigra

 

J Davis

DE Division of Fish and Wildlife

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[Nash Turley]

Hi Sam! 

One of our volunteers in the Pennsylvania Bee Monitoring Program caught 8 Hylaeus sparsus in 2023 in Chester Co. PA, 6 were netted off Zizia, and 2 off Osmorhiza longistylis. 

Here's a table of species that we've caught off Zizia, we probably have other spring Apiaceae host records, but I'll need to do some clearing up and filtering of our host record column, which I could so at some point :) 

species	count
Andrena cressonii	13
Hylaeus sparsus	6
Andrena nasonii	5
Andrena personata	4
Augochlora pura	4
Augochloropsis metallica	4
Ceratina calcarata	4
Colletes inaequalis	4
Nomada pygmaea group	4
Andrena alleghaniensis	3
Hylaeus fedorica	3
Hylaeus mesillae	3
Andrena illini	2
Ceratina strenua	2
Lasioglossum ephialtum	2
Nomada luteoloides	2
Andrena alleghaniensis/atlantica	1
Andrena crataegi	1
Andrena imitatrix/morrisonella	1
Augochlorella aurata	1
Bombus impatiens	1
Hylaeus modestus	1
Lasioglossum cressonii	1
Nomada cressonii group	1
Nomada denticulata	1
Nomada imbricata	1
Xylocopa virginica	1

Nash 

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[Molly Jacobson]

There's Andrena ziziae and Andrena vernalis which are presumably Zizia specialists. We also get Nomada mr-1, that mysterious A. ziziae parasite, alongside it on the Zizia here in New York.

-Molly Jacobson

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

Molly Jacobson

M.S. Conservation Biology

Native Pollinator Ecologist

SUNY-ESF Restoration Science Center

Illick 255 | mmja...@esf.edu

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[James Cane]

Sam- John Hilty's digitization of Robertson's records plus a few b John Lovell and another pair of investigators lends support to your contention that Hylaeus sparsus has a fondness for Apiaceae. 

https://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/flower_insects/insects/bees/hylaeus_sparsa.htm

In my studies of bees of Lomatium across the Intermountain West, I expected that some of the dozens of Andrena species would be pollen specialists, but only two have that possibility. Seems odd, for Lomatium bloom is as reliable as that of willows...we just had a 24F freeze during bloom, which clobbered all the flowers and fruits of valley trees, even open flowers of hardy native balsamroots, but lomatiums were inscathed. Individual L. dissectum live for at least 40 years too, judging by my transplants of what were already massive tap roots. Ah well, mysteries keep us interested, eh?

jim

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James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

owner -  WildBeecology

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"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
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[Douglas Yanega]

Our holdings are primarily (but not exclusively) western, and most of
the bees have host records.

Scanning the database, which is by no means exhaustive, I see several
species names that appear three or more times when looking at all 282
Apiaceae records (excluding Andrena ziziae):

Andrena: angustitarsata, atypica, candida, and chlorogaster.

Hylaeus: affinis, illinoisensis, m. mesillae, m. cressonii, modestus
citrinifrons, nevadensis, polifolli, and verticalis.

There are other bees on the list, but they're either singletons, or
obvious generalists (like Bombus).

We have no identified specimens of Hylaeus sparsus, georgicus, or
floridanus.

Peace,

--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 phone: 951-827-4315
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
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[Lusha Marguerite Tronstad]

We worked on a rare clover in central Wyoming and found that Andrena solo was the only visitors during the early blooming period. Our paper is attached.

Lusha

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[Bill Stitt]

Sam

we, Amy Schnebelin and myself caught H sparsus last spring doing a timed monitoring on Phacelia pursi but there was Osmorhiza claytonii mixed in. This past Saturday we collected both male and female on Zizia aurea and Osmorhiza longistylus that where growing in the same general area in Cleveland Metroparks. I also collected some from Osmorhiza in Cuyahoga Valley National park on Saturday too but only males. 

As a side note I also collected a male Hylaeus mesillae Saturday too. 

Bill Stitt

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[Michael Veit]

Hi Sam,

I've got a few records to share for the Hylaues spp. you are interested in.

H. sparsus females - 8 specimens/4 collecting events on Thaspium; 2 specimens/2 collecting events on Zizia

H. sparsus males - 5 specimens/3 collecting events on Zizia; 1 specimen on Thaspium; 1 specimen on Lupinus perennis; 1 specimen on Cerastium; 1 specimen on Heuchera

H. georgica males only - 2 specimens/1 collecting event on Packera

Michael Veit

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[Parys, Katherine - REE-ARS]

Hi folks- 

I've got a few records here of the other Hylaeus, but we haven't caught sparsus.... 

H. floridanus - 1 female from MS in a Malaise trap and 2 males (one each from AR and MS) one with no host plant recorded and one in a Warner trap. 

H. georgica - 1 female from LA in a Malaise trap and 2 males from here in MS both caught on Photinia serratifolia (Rosaceae). 

And we haven't done a ton of collecting on Apiaceae in general, but what I've got is below:

hostplant	sciname	CountOfsciname
Anethum graveolens	Lasioglossum (Dialictus) coactus (Cresson, 1872)	1
Anethum graveolens	Lasioglossum (Dialictus) hitchensi Gibbs	1
Anethum graveolens	Lasioglossum (Dialictus) imitatum	1
Anethum graveolens	Lasioglossum (Dialictus) spp. (tegulare sp. grp.)	1
Chaerophyllum tainturieri	Andrena spp.	1
Chaerophyllum tainturieri	Megachile (Litomegachile) mendica Cresson	1
Chaerophyllum tainturieri	Panurginus polytrichus Cockerell	4
Daucus carota	Andrena (Micrandrena) personata Robertson	1
Daucus carota	Andrena (Opandrena) cressonii cressonii Robertson	3
Daucus carota	Ceratina (Zadontomerus) shinnersi Daly	1
Daucus carota	Halictus (Odontalictus) ligatus/poeyi	3
Daucus carota	Hylaeus spp.	3
Daucus carota	Lasioglossum (Dialictus) imitatum	1
Daucus carota	Sphecodes spp.	1
Daucus carota	Xylocopa (Xylocopoides) virginica (L.)	1
Pastinaca sativa	Bombus (Cullumanobombus) griseocollis (DeGeer)	1

Katherine

-- 

Dr. Katherine A. Parys

USDA Agricultural Research Service

Southern Pollinator Health Center

Pollinator Health in Southern Crop Ecosystems Research Unit

141 Experiment Station Rd./ PO Box 346

Stoneville, MS 38776

katheri...@usda.gov

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[Virginia L Scott]

 

I have a MALE Hylaeus sparsus I collected from Ranunculus acris on June 20 1985 in Dickinson County (T43N R30W Sec 19) Michigan (in the UP).  I collected a lot of Hylaeus up there, many from umbels, but this is the only H. sparsus I ever collected.

 

Va

Ms. Virginia Scott (she/her)

Entomology – Senior Collections Manager

University of Colorado Museum of Natural History

265 UCB – MCOL

Boulder, CO 80309-0265

http://www.colorado.edu/cumuseum/research-collections/entomology

 

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[Lorraine Clarke]

In my study on bees in Bowie Pollinator gardens, I found a total of 17 Hylaeus bees (H. affinis, H. leptocephalus, H. mesillae, and H. modestus). Of those, 2 H. mesillae were found on Boltonia, 2 H. mesillae were found on Erigeron, and the rest of the Hylaeus were found ONLY on Solidago and Symphotrichum flowers (genera we had specifically marked as attractive to specialist bees). I marked this when I found it, as we were looking at other specialist bees (Melissodes and Lassioglossum), but Hylaeus also seemed to specialize. 

Here are the actual counts:

Hylaeus affinis: Solidago odora (1)

Hylaeus leptocephalus: Symphotrichum oblongifolium (2)

Hylaeus mesillae: Boltonia asteroides (2), Erigeron strigosa (2), Solidago odora (11), Solidago rugosa (2), Solidago sempervirens (2), Symphotrichum oblongifolium (1)

Hylaeus modestus: Solidago odora (1), Symphotrichum oblongifolium (1)

Definitely ONLY asters for mine.