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Nest parasite of primarily Eucerine bees. Densely arrayed in short flattened and prone hairs creating bold patterns of black and white bands and islands.

Field Marks: ♀♂Lacks long hair. Integument black except the legs are often red or reddish, rarely with red on antennae, head, and thorax. Visible hair all short, flattened, and prone. Abdomen with striking bands of black and white hairs, particularly noticeable on first abdominal segment. Thorax, upper surface, sides of rear edge with two small triangular projections (axillae). Thorax, upper side, pattern of hair often, but not always, appears like the classic smiley face. ♀ Hind legs with same short hair length as other legs. ♂With small, narrow, parallel-sided, bare plate (pygidial plate) with a rounded end at the very tip of its abdomen, often difficult to see in the field.

Flight Season: Summer and fall.

Size Relative to Honey Bee: 0.5-0.75X.

Position of Wings Feeding on Flowers: Most of the time up and out at about 45 degrees to the body.

Location of Pollen Carrying Hairs: None; does not gather pollen.

Similar Genera: Epeolus - On average, smaller, but lots of overlap between the two genera and almost impossible to tell apart in the field. However, within the two groups, a few have species-specific unique characters that can be used for identification, and those will be covered in a separate publication at the species level. Thorax, upper side, can also have a smiley face.

Nest: Nest parasite of Eucerines.

Flowers: Nectars at a variety of flowers.

Overview

The following material taken with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962. Bees of the Eastern United States, Volume II. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. Tech. Bul. No.152, 557 p.

As the name suggests, Trieopeolus is closely related to Epeolus, with the body ornamented with spots or bands of pale, appressed tomentum giving them a wasp-like appearance, and the axillae usually well developed, more or less acutely pointed posteriorly. Triepeolus differs from Epeolus in having 3-segmented maxillary palpi and the marginal cell in the front wing is narrower and more elongate, its length usually exceeding the distance from its tip to the apex of the wing. In the females tergum 5 is modified to form a quite extensive pseudopygidium which is short setose or pubescent, its length usually equal to its breadth. Sternum 6 is composed of a pair of slender, parallel rods joined at the base by a transverse sclerite, these rods multi-spinose apically. Males are more difficult to separate from those of Epeolus but may be recognized by the difference in the maxillary palpi and marginal cell. Also the average size in Triepeolus is greater.

So far as present knowledge indicates, these are parasitic on Melissodes and possibly some of the other related Eucerine genera.