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Photo#663874
Another pollinator of Phacelia exilis - Dufourea

Another pollinator of Phacelia exilis - Dufourea
Greenhorn Mountains, off Sawmill Rd, Sequoia National Forest, Kern County, California, USA
May 31, 2012
Adding a 2nd image here (taken 5 sec before the other) in case it may help with ID...but also because it illustrates some interesting pollinator-adapted floral morphology.

If you're a Phacelia connoisseur, you may have heard of "corolla scales" (described in the remarks with the 1st image in this series), which are usually present in species of Phacelia (and some other genera of the former family Hydrophyllaceae, now subsumed into the Boraginaceae). A line-drawing detailing the corolla-scales of P. exilis appears at the lower left of Figure 4100 on pg. 506 of Abrams(1951).

In the above image, the bee is clutching a filament with its right fore-tarsi and sliding its mouthparts into the crevice between the two corolla scales associated with that stamen...which emanate from each side of the base of the filament and are fused to the corolla as they extend upward, together forming a pocket.

Corolla scales in Phacelia vary in shape and attachment details among different species, and thus are sometimes used in keys and descriptions as distinguishing characters. Regarding this particular species, Phacelia exilis, the detailed description on page 492 of Howell includes the following:

"corolla-scales 1.5-2 mm. long, narrowly quadrate, truncate above, attached to corolla by one edge, the free edges of adjacent pairs connivent, at base more or less united to base of filaments and forming a shallow pocket"

Here "connivent" means the scales touch along their inner edges but are not fused there. I believe what you can see in the image above is the dark black of the mouthparts of the bee, forcing the connivent scale edges apart slightly, as it initially thrusted its glossa into the pocket towards the nectary.

Images of this individual: tag all
Another pollinator of Phacelia exilis - Dufourea Another pollinator of Phacelia exilis - Dufourea

Moved
Moved from Rophitinae.

Moved
Moved from Sweat Bees.

Very cool. We've got a paucit
Very cool. We've got a paucity of Hydrophyllaceae round about here (one native Phacelia occuring somewhat nearby but not here) but the ones we do have the bees really swarm. The Hydrophyllum tenuipes is a favorite mid-spring spot....I will watch some of the tinier bees (even smaller than this Halictid) and see what they do. The larger bees can't really crawl into the the tenuipes flowers. (P.S. Didn't know some genera had been moved into Borage. Good to know.)

 
Phacelia & Hydrophyllaceae
I'd guess there are more Phacelia species not too far from Portland. Check out this nice page on Phacelias of Columbia Gorge. You can also query the Oregon Plant Atlas using "Family=Boraginaceae" and "Genus=Phacelia"; and this interactive map for Phacelia species distribution by county in WA (click a county to see species occurring there).

I think Hydrophyllum tenuipes also has corolla scales, per the genus description from the old flora by Abrams. I'd guess some smaller bees may be able to access the nectaries inside the corolla scale pockets.

BTW, I believe that it's not just some genera of Hydrophyllaceae that were moved into Boraginaceae...the whole family was subsumed as subfamily "Hydrophylloideae". Scroll down a few screens on this interesting page from Missouri Bot. Garden for details. One of the subfamily characters they mention is: "Stamens...usu. with small scales at each side of the base". The qualification "usually" seems to indicate most, though not every, species in (the former) Hydrophyllaceae has discernible corolla scales.

 
Good to see another plant gee
Good to see another plant geek here. I figured some were lurking:-) Thanks for the details.

Wow, didn't know the whole family was subsumed. (I've been snoozing on my botany lately.)

I tried to see what the little bees were up to with the H. tenuipes this spring but they were so small and fast and I was so busy I just never figured it out. May try again next year.

I think my remark on phacelia was confusing. I'm not a driver so I think anything 30 miles away is far far away :-) The Gorge is phenomenal and when I was willing to drive I spent a lot of time there...thing is the plant communities shift radically and quickly over relatively small distances in the Gorge so even something happy just 50 miles east of here, won't necessarily be found here.... (Phacelia linearis, a little beauty, was the one I was thinking of, fwiw.)

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