Author Gary Taylor ◦
To bee, or not to bee? That is the question — whether ’tis Stenotritidae (Ctenocolletes) albomarginatus…
😃 Haha, right on cue, earlier this week we stopped at a favourite spot that should be chockers with yellow Verticordia soon to see what was about and to my surprise they were already in full bloom and the big Stenotritidae girls were out in abundance…
Ok, if you haven’t heard of Stenotritidae it’s probably ‘cos of the five major bee families in Aus, Stenotritidae is the smallest in number of known species, with only 16 in two genera on Padil (17 with my new discovery “Taylor’s Burrowing Bee” 😃) and to bee honest, although I’d seen the name studying Tobias Smith’s annotated guide to the Australian bee genera (which I highly recommend), when I first started, I wouldn’t have known one if I’d taken a close up pic of it… 😄 Which it turned out I had… 😃😅
Anyway, I’d been led to believe this one is Stenotritidae (Ctenocolletes) albomarginatus (Latin, matt white margins or edges), one of only several species of Stenotritidae found in this area, been calling it that for years… 😆 don’t panic Colin, it still might be 😂, probably is… 😃 but I’ve since found out that’s not entirely true (Thanks Ken!) and there’s a few very similar looking ones also found here as well… So yeah nah dunno, I’ve tried studying the mesoscutum to see the difference, but there’s no pics of the male albomarginatus (which I’m sure I have, but that doesn’t help) so I’m stuffed if I know… 😄
Photographs Midwest WA © Gary Taylor
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Footnote & References
- The Australian bee genera, An annotated, user-friendly key, by Tobias J. Smith, University of New England, https://www.beeawarekids.com.au/the-australian-bee-genera.html