Here is a prairie Anthidium. A. psoraleae. There are 36 Anthidiums in the U.S. In the East and the Midwest, none are what you would call common any longer...except for 2 of the exotic ones A. oblongatum and A. manicatum. They, are common. Why? Because they like weeds and are weedy themselves and in places where people with cameras live there are lots of weeds. In fact, except for you, dear reader, the story of the average house is this: Land in a luxurious state of unbelievable bioplexity is tornout, crushed, flattened, spread with subsoil from the new basement, and in its place weed gardens advertently and inadvertently grown. No native Anthidiums here, no sir, they need native plants not fake ones. Nature wants you to fix that. Photo by Cole Cheng and specimen from Minnesota from Patrick Pennarola's study of ...prairie restoration.
