While I was walking around in my garden I spotted a bee I have not seen before. It was black and has pollen baskets on its legs. It was around mid August when I spotted it and it only stuck around for a minute before leaving the area. But during that time I got some pictures of it on my black-eyed Susan flowers. It seemed to be feeding on the nectar from them and did not mind my near by presence.
Its about the size of my female Mason bees, though it has different colorings. And my Mason bees lack a pollen basket, they use the back bottom part of their abdomen to collect pollen. Though this mystery bee has an organ like Honey bees do which allow them to store them in "baskets" on their legs.
These flowers have been a great addition to the garden, I bought them in an order with some of my Apple and Cherry trees. Glad I added them, they have needed no care and are just happy flowers. They come back every year with more and more of them.
Getting as close as possible I did not want to scare it away, though that did not happen and it stuck around while I got some pictures.
It seemed to be only interested in the black-eyed Susan flowers, most insects have not really visited this flower so it was good to see something liked it.
The bees pollen basket can be seen above, the hairy leg is where it attaches pollen it collects. If this is like my Mason bees it will use the pollen to feed its young.
It appeared to have a little bit of pollen on its head, probably got a little dirty while collecting all of it.. haha
Now I need to keep an eye out for this bee again and hope I can get another encounter with it.
It takes off and you can really see its pollen baskets now, they are a white color. But that may be due to the color of pollen they collect. Since raising Honey bees I have seen a dozen or so different color pollen they collect. From red to yellow to orange and white.
Tried to get some video as well but just enough to make a animation out of. It flies to the next flower, slowly and swaying a little on its way to that next one to feed on.
So what kind of bee do I think this is?
Spending a few minutes searching for images on of native bees to the Southeastern United States I came across this one: Melissodes bimaculatus. Also known as a Two spotted Long Horned bee. The all black coloring of it along with its white pollen baskets is what makes me think its that bee.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissodes_bimaculatus
https://bugguide.net/node/view/69274
Looking at the distribution map it surely could be this bee.
Another blogger noticed these as well.
Here is a closer look at my black-eyed Susans. I recommend these as they need little to no care and the bugs seem to leave them alone for the most part. I started with just a small plant in a pot and its really expanded in the last couple years.
Even some spiders have made homes in them, with webs going from flower to flower. The spider can stay up in the plants and travel around. Hope the bee does not get caught up in it. Though they seem to be pretty good at avoiding areas with webs.