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Overview
Reprinted with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962 Bees of the Eastern United States. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin No. 152.
FEMALE—Length 13-15 mm., breadth of abdomen 5-5.5 mm.; black, the mandibles slightly reddened but very dark, with a faint yellowish area toward the apex, segments of flagellum beyond the 2nd brownish-testaceous beneath, black above; apical tarsal segments somewhat brownish, spurs brownish-testaceous; tegulae black, somewhat tinged with brown along outer margin; wings rather uniformly deeply infuscated, veins piceous to black; cheeks much narrower than eyes; clypeus slightly protuberant, its median length approximately half the distance between eyes below; eyes slightly convergent below; basal segment of flagellum slightly less than twice length of segment 2; punctures of clypeus deep, distinct, rather coarse and close above, becoming fine and densely crowded toward apical margin, those on labrum densely crowded medially, becoming somewhat coarser and rather sparse on each side; face laterally above clypeus closely and rather finely punctate, punctures becoming minute and sparse above where the surface is shining between eyes and ocelli; vertex closely and rather deeply punctate behind ocelli; cheeks shining and very finely punctate beneath rather dense pubescence; scutum shining between deep and distinct punctures, these rather coarse and quite sparse in median area of disc posteriorly, becoming somewhat finer and much closer laterally and anteriorly, those on scutellum finer and more evenly distributed, interspaces nearly equal to diameter of punctures; punctures of pleura coarse, close and deep, inter- spaces narrow, somewhat shining; posterior face of propodeum rather coarsely, deeply and closely punctate, the dorsal triangle shining below, upper surface somewhat less shining, quite closely and rather deeply punctate along upper margin and toward each side, lateral faces closely and rather finely punctate throughout; basal two-thirds of basal abdominal tergum deeply, distinctly and rather coarsely and closely punctate, the punctate area nearly reaching apical margin on each extreme side, apical third medially somewhat shining and entirely impunctate; terga 2-4 deeply, distinctly and rather finely punctate, punctures well separated medially on 2 and 3, becoming close at extreme sides, much closer on 4, the broad apical impressed areas well punctured nearly to the rims; tergum 5 densely and very finely rugose beneath the dense pubescence; pygidium rather narrowly triangular, median length barely exceeding the basal width, narrowly rounded at apex; pubescence of head, thorax, and fore and mid legs, largely black, with only a few pale hairs on face around and between antennae; tibial scopa whitish, strongly contrasting with the otherwise black pubescence, the hairs quite densely plumose; abdominal terga 1-3 largely short, black pubescent, although basal tergum with somewhat more copious, erect pubescence anteriorly, sometimes with barely perceptible traces of oblique, white fasciae at extreme sides of 2 and 3; tergum 4 densely white pubescent apically, broadly interrupted medially; and terga 5 and 6 entirely black.
MALE—Length 11-13 mm., breadth of abdomen 4.5 mm.; black, the clypeus and labrum bright yellow, mandibles largely dark, but more or less yellow at base, apex with a rather short testaceous maculation; flagellum beyond segment 1 brownish-testaceous beneath, black above, the basal segment more piceous; apical tarsal segments becoming somewhat brownish-testaceous, spurs pale testaceous; tegulae piceous or black, very narrowly brownish along outer margin; wings rather deeply and uniformly infuscated, veins piceous to black; cheeks considerably narrower than eyes; clypeus only slightly protuberant, its median length half the distance between eyes below; eyes slightly convergent below; basal segment of flagellum about as long as the apical width, segment 2 about three times longer; punctures of clypeus quite uniformly coarse, close, deep and distinct, those on labrum much finer and closer medially, becoming rather sparse on each side; punctures of face laterally above clypeus quite deep, distinct and rather close and coarse, becoming minute on the shining surface above antennae, rather sparse between eyes and ocelli; vertex closely and rather coarsely punctate medially, becoming rather sparse laterally, distinctly separated on cheeks, rather coarse on hind margin, becoming minute toward eyes; scutum shining between coarse, deep and distinct punctures, these rather widely separated over posterior half, becoming closer and somewhat finer laterally and anteriorly; scutellum with somewhat finer and closer punctures; pleura with coarse, deep and distinct punctures that are rather well separated on central area, but become coarser above and below; posterior face of propodeum deeply, distinctly, and quite sparsely punctate, dorsal face becoming much more closely punctate, especially toward extreme sides, lateral faces closely and distinctly punctate; punctures of abdominal terga 1-3 deep, distinct but rather fine, well separated medially, becoming quite close at each extreme side, apical impressed areas distinctly, deeply and finely punctate nearly to the rims, the punctures somewhat more sparse than basally; terga 4-6 much more closely and finely punctate, the punctures becoming densely crowded laterally; tergum 5 not distinctly angulate laterally, but 6 with a short, triangular, apical spine-like angle on each side; pubescence largely whitish on face, with few dark hairs at extreme sides, vertex white pubescent in part but a few dark hairs between ocelli, and posterior margin densely fringed with fuscous pubescence, that on cheeks entirely black; scutum with an intermixture of dark and light hairs, those on scutellum more definitely blackish, the pleura and propodeum largely dark pubescent, but with a few pale hairs beneath and on upper part of propodeum posteriorly; legs with dark pubescence on the coxae, trochanters and femora, but tibial and tarsal hairs generally whitish; abdominal terga largely covered with short, suberect, dark pubescence, but with an intermixture of pale hairs on basal tergum anteriorly, and terga 3-5 with narrow fasciae that are widely interrupted medially, somewhat oblique on 3, more nearly subapical on 4, and definitely apical on 5; median length of pygidial plate about equal to basal width, abruptly constricted toward the apex which is rather narrowly truncate; sternum 7 similar to comptoides (fig. 81) but apical rolled portion of median plates much smaller; sternum 8 truncate or broadly and shallowly in- curved apically; sternum 8 and genital armature as in comptoides but gonostyli with hairs at base more elongate.
DISTRIBUTION—Generally distributed throughout the Eastern United States, reaching North Dakota, Colorado and New Mexico in the West, May to October.
FLOWER RECORDS — The following genera are listed by LaBerge (1956) : Abutilon, Agastache, Althaea, Arctium, Asclepias, Asparagus, Aster, Astragulus, Baptisia, Bidens, Blephilia, Brauneria, Cacalia, Campanula, Cassia, Cephalanthus, Cicuta, Cirsium, Convolvulus, Cuphea, Cucurbita, Dalea, Desmodium, Dianthera, Dipsacus, Echinocystis, Eupatorium, Gaura, Gerardia, Gladiolus, Gossypium, Grindelia, Helenium, Helianthus, Hibiscus, impatiens, Ipomoea, Jacquemontia, Lepachys, Lespedeza, Lobelia, Lythrum, Malva, Medicago, Melilotus, Mentha, Monarda, Nepeta, Oenothera, Oxalis, Petalostemum, Petunia, Physostegia, Platycodon, Polygonum, Prunella, Pycnanthemum, Ratibida, Rhus, Rudbeckia, Sagittaria, Scrophularia, Scutellaria, Seymeria, Sicyos, Silphium, Siscanna, Solidago, Stachys, Strophostylis, Symphoricarpos, Teucrium, Trifolium, Verbena, Vernonia, Veronica and Vitex.
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