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 8-9 mm.; entirely black; face much longer than distance between eyes; eyes subparallel; space between lateral ocelli and margin of vertex about twice that between ocelli and eyes, the inter-ocellar space shorter; clypeus very slightly convex, its breadth fully twice the median length, apical margin somewhat produced medially, this area nearly straight; labrum broadly rounded apically, basal area slightly concave, median length slightly greater than basal width; mandibles somewhat broadened apically, distinctly tri-dentate; cheeks slightly broader than eyes; wings subhyaline, veins and stigma piceous; tegulae dark, smooth and shining; legs entirely dark, hind coxae somewhat swollen, and hind femora somewhat swollen medially; front spurs yellowish, mid and hind spurs piceous to black; pubescence entirely pale, very short and thin, somewhat more copious and elongate between antennae and along lower inner orbits, the pleura and propodeum margined with lines of denser and more elongate pubescence, posterior face of propodeum and scutellum posteriorly with rather elongate but sparse, whitish hairs; terga 1-4 with narrow, white, apical fasciae, discal pubescence hardly evident, but becoming more definite on 5 and 6, 6 with a quite dense, apical, more yellowish fringe, scopa yellowish, quite dense; punctures coarse, deep and distinct over most of body, close on face below ocelli, cheeks, and on thorax laterally, rather sparse on vertex posterior to ocelli, very coarse and quite close on scutum and scutellum; abdominal terga shining between deep and distinct punctures, these well separated and somewhat finer on the more basal terga medially, becoming somewhat coarser laterally, uniformly rather coarse and close on tergum crowded on 6, sterna with coarse, densely crowded punctures beneath the scopal hairs.
MALE—Length 7 mm.; entirely black; face somewhat longer than distance between eyes above; eyes very slightly convergent below; lateral ocelli sub-equally distant from eyes and each other, widely removed from margin of vertex; median length of clypeus about half the breadth, slightly convex, apical margin nearly straight; labrum little if any longer than basal width, rounded apically; mandibles bi-dentate; cheeks slightly narrower than eyes; wings subhyaline, veins and stigma brownish; tegulae brownish-hyaline, smooth and shining; legs entirely dark, hind coxae somewhat swollen, hind femora only slightly front spurs pale yellowish, middle pair more testaceous, hind spurs brownish-testaceous; tergum 6 conspicuously quadri-dentate, median teeth narrowly rounded or subtruncate apically, lateral teeth triangularly acute; tergum 7 very short, transverse, apical margin nearly straight; sterna 1-4 exposed, black, and 6 as shown (fig. 17); genital armature and sterna 7 and 8 similar to floridana 18); pubescence entirely pale, rather loose thin in general, but quite copious and elongate around antennae and lower part of face, cheeks below, pronotum laterally, scutellum posteriorly, along each margin of mesopleura, and along lateral margins of posterior face propodeum; terga 1-4 with dense, white, apical fasciae, these somewhat narrower medially, becoming more dense and conspicuous laterally, 5 not definitely fasciate, discal pubescence very short, thin and inconspicuous, barely entirely pale; sterna 2 and 3 fringed apically with long, whitish pubescence; coarse, deep and distinct, quite close general, but somewhat more widely separated on vertex medially, on scutum near median part of disc posteriorly, and on scutellum, an area on lower part of pleura where they more definitely separated; tergum 1 closely and coarsely punctate, 2 and 3 with somewhat finer and more widely separated punctures medially, these becoming quite coarse, deep close laterally, 4-6 closely, deeply and rather coarsely punctate throughout; exposed sterna closely, deeply and coarsely punctate.
DISTRIBUTION — This species is chiefly western, but has been collected in Wisconsin, Illinois and Georgia, in May and August.
FLOWER RECORD — Helianthus. Robertson (1929) records bucconis on the following genera: Brauneria, Coreopsis, Solidago, Verbena and Verbesina.
Another subspecies, denticulata Cresson, is western in distribution.
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