📜 EwA Week Highlights: Bacterial Galls, Sweat Bee Burrows & Bumblebees

[Mike McGlathery]

EwA Highlights June 30, 2025 Hello everyone,  Thanks for reading the June 30th EwA highlights. 📸 One of the most rewarding parts of being a naturalist is being able to notice and make sense of small details in the landscape that you may have passed right by otherwise, and connect those details to other things you’re seeing. Recognizing the burrows of different ground-nesting insects is a good example: here what might look like a slightly strange anthill to the untrained eye turns out to be the nest of one of our common native pollinators, the bicolored striped sweat bee (Agapostemon virescens). These small bees nest communally, but each female creates its own burrow inside the nest within which it lays its eggs. EwA iNaturalist Record (© JeannieK · Boston, MA · June 26, 2025)  The thing about galls (the abnormal growths you’ll often see on plants) that makes them really interesting to me is the fact that they’re caused by such a wide variety of life forms. Many of the more commonly recognizable galls we see are caused by tiny arthropods such as mites or gnat larvae, but fungi and bacteria can fill that role too. This bacterial crown gall (Agrobacterium radiobacter) is one of those non-arthropod examples. EwA iNaturalist Record (© Erin E. · Lincoln, MA · June 28, 2025)  A bumblebee being EwA’s most-observed species of the week on iNat is as good a sign as any that summer has officially arrived. That was true this week, with the brown belted bumblebee (Bombus griseocollis) at the top of the list. Happy summer! EwA iNaturalist Record (© Joe MacInewar · Melrose, MA · June 27, 2025)  📊 Our iNaturalist numbers were down a little bit this week due to the brutal heat wave in the first half, but we still got lots of great observations. Thanks to everyone for your great biodiversity records this week, totaling 835 observations of 503 distinct species. If you’re curious about the records from this week that have been validated by the iNat community so far, you can find them » here. 🏆 Running tally: To date, we have recorded 242,124 observations of 12,712 distinct species! Check out our EwA umbrella project, see the details per site/observer, and more » here. 📅 EwA Upcoming Public Events Ewa Field Events » Check the EwA Summer [ Event details and registration » ] Don’t miss some great opportunities to follow the rhythm of the season in our local habitats and in the local wildlife! Space is limited for all our field events. Wildlife ethics is important to us and we seek to avoid putting the pressure on natural habitats which large gatherings unavoidably do. We are asking our audience to register-and-commit (or cancel when you know you can’t come) to avoid no-shows. EwA Fieldwork (and Resources) It’s a great time to join our monitoring programs. Check EwA’s Volunteer Program Calendar 📅  to know when things happen. And if a session is of interest to you, don’t hesitate to reach out to get the rendezvous location. 📅 EwA Sites Map | 🌱 Site Protocols and Guides · Field Rosters · Field Notes » All here! | ℹ️ More about EwA’s Citizen Science Program » Here ❓ Do you have any questions? Don’t be shy. Just email me or reply to this thread.  That’s all for this week—hope you have a good one! -Mike