Wilke's Mining Bee
There are a bunch of bees around here; this 1 is (probably) a Wilke's Mining Bee . (A very technical description is here .) This is not a native bee, though they've been over here for a long time. There's a theory that they made the trip over here within ship ballast. Not unlike European humans, they've spread out and thrived over here, probably at the expense of native residents [1]. Although these bees are known to like pollinating legumes like clovers and Bird's-foot Trefoil , that's not a hard-and-fast rule; this bee seems to be enjoying a Common Yarrow . Despite evolving on a different continent, they do have fairly close relatives in the US. We have mining bees here, and all mining bees are in the same genus. They get their name from a tendency to dig holes in the ground, but they're not looking for precious metals; that's where the nests for their offspring will reside [2]. These bees were named by the 19th century entomologist William Kirby , bu...