Jul 27, 2015
Colletes validus, male, side_2012-04-12-12.46 (by USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab)
Look at the veryyyyyyy long distance from the bottom of the compound eye to the mandible base (technically this is called the malar space). Few bees show this long a head and it is nearly distinctive within Colletes at least in the north. This is a species that likes to hang out around blueberries and other Vaccinium type things. It tends to clump its nests together and it relatively uncommon to find. Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.
