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Photo#1395020
Bee feeding on Tephrosia virginiana - Megachile - female

Bee feeding on Tephrosia virginiana - Megachile - Female
Lena Park, Starke County, Indiana, USA
July 1, 2017
Photographed on the Erie Trail east of North Judson, Indiana, a former rail line now used as a hike and bike trail. It's a sand area, with an oak woodland just to the north. Most of the Tephrosia virginiana was finished blooming, but the few remaining blossoms were being used actively by bees like this one. To me it looks like a Megachile, perhaps Osmia or something similar. I have other photos but can't vouch that any two are the same individual, several similar bees were present. I didn't see these bees visiting any other flowers in the area, the T. virginiana is almost done blooming, and many of these bees had tattered wings, so I wondered if they might be specialists.

Guidelines
Interestingly, it is possible to link images of a group of specimens, even if you are not sure they are the same individual, according to the [url=https://bugguide.net/help/dodont] guidelines. Of course, you would mention this on every one of the linked images to avoid confusion.

"Do link images of the same specimen (individual) or group of specimens."

I wouldn't mind seeing a couple more. If one of them turns out to be a different species, there is plenty of time to unlink it. Good luck!

 
new photos
Yesterday afternoon (June 20, 2018) I went back to the same location and photographed again. I've posted three that I think are probably the same species depicted here on iNaturalist where the photographic formats are bit more freewheeling so you can get a better look. I photographed some other Megachiles there, but they look a little different so I'll post them as a separate observation also on iNat. I'd be very interested in your thoughts Beatriz! Here's the link: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13636439

Moved
Moved from gemula or mucida.

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Moved from ID Request.

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Moved from ID Request.

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Moved from ID Request.

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Moved from ID Request.

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