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Identification Summary: Large species; male has clear thorn-like spine on underside of F3; males and females have unique combination of bright yellow axillae and an entirely red scutellum
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 10-11 mm.; lateral ocelli subequally distant from margin of vertex and each other; cheeks more than half width of eyes, hind margin strongly carinate; longer side of basal segment of flagellum equal to segment 2, median segments about as broad as long; mandibles slender and simple; wings lightly infuscated basally, becoming rather deeply infuscated apically, with the usual three submarginal cells, 2nd submarginal about as broad anteriorly as posteriorly, 3rd strongly narrowed, veins piceous, stigma more testaceous, basal vein interstitial with transverse median; tegulae deeply, closely and quite coarsely punctate; pronotal collar sharply carinate; posterior margin of scutellum quite deeply grooved medially; front coxal spines slender and elongate, quite densely pubescent: apex of hind tibiae with 5 or 6 elongate, yellowish bristles; lower half of face, including labrum and mandibles, and antennae basally, reddish-testaceous, lateral face marks produced narrowly along inner margin of eye nearly to vertex, and orbital margin of cheeks narrowly yellowish, the narrow malar space and area between clypeus laterally and lower end of eye bright yellow; median area of face above, vertex and cheeks, black; antennal flagellum beyond segment 1 brownish beneath, somewhat darker above; pronotal collar, the small axillae on each side of scutellum, and small spots on metanotum, bright yellow; tubercles, tegulae and legs in large part, more testaceous, spurs pale yellow; scutellum bright ferruginous, pleura suffused with ferruginous anteriorly and to some degree above and posteriorly, and scutum narrowly rimmed with dull ferruginous on each side; abdominal terga with bright yellow maculae, those on basal tergum small, submedian and rather widely interrupted medially; tergum 2 with a broad, extensive maculation on each side occupying most of disc, but deeply constricted, almost interrupted medially; tergum 3 with a narrower, transverse band which is broadly interrupted medially, 4 with a rather narrow, entire, subapical band; and tergum 5 with a rather extensive, median, apical, more whitish area and a small spot on each side, abdominal sterna entirely black; punctures of face above antennae and on vertex coarse, close and deep, becoming somewhat finer and very close on cheeks below and on face laterally, the clypeus quite closely, deeply, distinctly and rather finely punctate; scutum and scutellum very coarsely and deeply rugoso-punctate, the pleura below somewhat more deeply and distinctly but very closely punctate becoming somewhat finer but still very close and deep above; propodeum laterally somewhat shining, but with fine, scattered and irregular, shallow punctures, posterior face much more closely punctate and dull, triangle impunctate but rather dull and tessellate; the more basal abdominal terga with deep, distinct, close, rather coarse and uniform punctures, those on 1 becoming more minute and sparse toward base; punctures on the more apical terga somewhat finer and closer but still distinct and deep; pseudopygidium transverse, very short and rather narrow, forming the narrow apical rim of tergum 5, densely covered with very fine, silvery, subappressed tomentum; pubescence extremely short, thin and obscure, entirely whitish where visible.
MALE—Length 10-11 mm.; lateral ocelli subequally distant from margin of vertex and each other; cheeks very nearly as broad as eyes, posterior margin carinate; antennal scape much swollen, apex deeply excavated and completely hiding pedicel, basal segment of flagellum about half length of segment 2, the more apical segments much shorter, only slightly longer than broad, segment 3 with a minute but distinct spine beneath, apical segment somewhat more elongate and acuminate; mandibles slender and simple apically; wings subhyaline at base, becoming rather deeply infuscated apically, with the usual three submarginal cells, the 2nd nearly as broad anteriorly as posteriorly, 3rd much narrower, veins piceous, stigma somewhat more testaceous, basal vein interstitial with transverse median; tegulae coarsely, closely and deeply punctate throughout; pronotal collar sharply carinate; posterior margin of scutellum rather shallowly grooved medially; front coxal spines rather short, obscured by quite dense pubescence; lower surface of hind femora rather strongly carinate along the posterior margin; apex of hind tibiae with four rather fine and obscure. elongate, yellowish bristles; entire face below antennae, including labrum and basal half of mandibles, bright yellow; face above antennae, vertex and cheeks, entirely black, the lateral facial maculae ending obliquely on eye margin near top of eye; antennal scape and segment 1 of flagellum yellow, flagellum otherwise reddish-testaceous below, more piceous above; pronotal collar, tubercles, tegulae, axillae, metanotum except in center, and rather large anterior maculations of pleura, bright yellow; scutellum bright ferruginous, legs largely reddish-testaceous, but front legs chiefly yellow anteriorly, and mid and hind legs with yellow maculations on trochanters, femora and tibiae, spurs pale yellow; abdominal terga with transverse bright yellow maculations, that on tergum 1 subapical, and rather widely interrupted medially, that on 2 broad laterally, deeply constricted medially. with only a narrow connecting band; bands entire on 3-5 but somewhat narrowed near mid-line, very small and median on 6; punctures of face above antennae, on vertex and on cheeks above, very coarse, deep and close, becoming somewhat finer but very close and deep on cheeks below, very fine over most of face below antennae and on clypeus; scutum and scutellum coarsely and deeply rugosopunctate, punctures very coarse and close over entire pleura, becoming almost rugose above; propodeum laterally with rather fine, shallow and irregular punctures, becoming close posteriorly, very close on posterior face, the triangle impunctate but densely tessellate, becoming almost striate along upper margin; punctures of abdominal terga deep, distinct, quite coarse and uniformly close, only the narrow apical rims impunctate, but tergum 1 becoming more minutely and sparsely punctate toward base; abdominal sterna very coarsely, deeply and closely punctate, becoming more finely so on the more apical sterna, apical margins of 4 and 5 somewhat incurved and broadly depressed, covered with dense, fine and elongate, plumose pubescence, hiding the surface, and sternum 6 with a dense fringe of elongate, more erect, pale hairs; pubescence very short, thin, suberect, but rather inconspicuous, entirely pale; basal width of pygidial plate nearly equal to median length, strongly narrowed apically, apex narrowly rounded, tip only very faintly incised if at all, margin carinate, surface closely, quite coarsely, and deeply punctate; sternum 8 (fig. 104) broadly produced apically, this part subtriangular, fringed with robust, ventrally projecting setae; gonocoxites of genital armature (fig. 103) not lobate at base, the gonostyli not produced and setose at base beneath, rather slender, tufted apically and along the inner margin.
DISTRIBUTION—Kansas and Nebraska to Massachusetts, in May.
FLOWER RECORDS—Recorded by Robertson (1929) on Coreopsis and Erigeron.
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Extracted from: Robertson, C. (1897). North American Bees - Description and Synonyms. Transactions of the Academy of Science od St. Louis. Vol. 7. No. 14.
Female - Black, very closely and coarsely pUllctured; pubescence
thin except a line about tubercles and on collar and sides
of metathorax; head below antennae, except mandibles at
tips, wide anterior and narrow posterior orbits, nearly meet-
ing on vertex, antennae, except fiagel1um above, legs, except
posterior femora and tibiae behind, irregular patch on pleura,collar, tubercles, tegulae, line above, two lines on meSOl1otUl11
before scutellum, a tubercle on each side before scutellum,
the latter and postscutellum, and abuomen beneath rnfo- or
falvo-ferruginous; mandibles simple, fourth joint of antennae
nearly one-third longer than third or fifth, tegulae strongly
punctured, scutellum bilobed; wings fuliginous, nervures
fuscous, stigma ferruginous; abdomen very broad, depressed,
basal half of first segment black with a yellow or ferruginous
band beyond, finely and sparsely punctured at base, the punc-
tures coarse and close at apical margin; second segment
densely punctured, except on the sides, where it is more
sparsely punctured and gibbous owing to the strongly de-
pressed apical margin, yellow except a narrow line on disc and
the apical margin, the latter as well as margins of two follow-
ing segments somewhat reflexed; segments three and four with
a yellow spot on each side, the fifth with a broad cross band,
beneath the abdomen is very strongly, coarsely and densely
punctured, the second and third segments reflexed. Length
10 mm.
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