Another bland Melitta. Â This is M. eickworti. Â But! Â How very interesting. Â (I could actually say this about any bee, but let's put that aside). Â It is a specialist on Vaccinium stamineum (Deerberry). Â It gathers pollen ONLY from V. s. but none of the other Vaccinium's (of which there are bunches). Â V. s. also has another bee (Panurginus atramontensis) that is a specialist on it. Â Furthermore, V. s. flowers don't look like the vase-shaped flowers of the low-bush and high-bush clade of blueberries. Â They are open and don't try to hide their private parts in a vase. Â Furthering even more, these other blueberries also have specialist bees that go to them but not to V. s. Â So, why? Â If you are in the same darn genus then why did do you (speaking of V.s. here) hang out with a different set of specialists?...unless, it is not really a true flag waving blueberry but a berry that should actually be kicked out of the Vaccinium genus altogether. (I have things to say about Cranberries too). Â Specimen captured by Ellison Orcutt in Virginia and photo by Erick Hernandez. Â Â
