Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

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Calendar

Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Species Colletes thoracicus - Rufous-backed Cellophane Bee

Representative Images

Another Andrena? - Colletes thoracicus Another Andrena? - Colletes thoracicus Mating bee pair on redbud - Colletes thoracicus - male - female Unidentified Adrena Bee - Colletes thoracicus Ground nesting bees. - Colletes thoracicus Rufous-chested Cellophane Bee - Colletes thoracicus - female Black & Orange Bees Swarming My Deck - Colletes thoracicus Rufous-backed Cellophane Bee ??? - Colletes thoracicus - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees)
Family Colletidae (Cellophane, Plasterer, Masked, and Allied Bees)
Genus Colletes (Cellophane bees)
Species thoracicus (Rufous-backed Cellophane Bee)

Other Common Names

Rufous-chested Cellophane Bee; Thoracic Cellophane Bee

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Colletes rufithorax Swenk, 1906; Colletes pulcher Swenk, 1906

Explanation of Names

Colletes thoracica Smith, 1853

Size

Female: Length 12-14mm(1)
Male: Length 10-13mm(1)

Range

Texas to Florida, north through the Atlantic Coast states to New York and Massachusetts.
Discover Life Map

Season

January and February in Florida; March through June in the northern parts of the range.

Food

Visits flowers from several families. The Hosts section on its Discover Life species page lists known floral associations based on specimen records and images.

Life Cycle

Information on life cycle and nesting can be found in Batra (1980)(2)

Print References

A revision of the genus Colletes in America North of Mexico (Hymenoptera, Colletidae)(3)

Internet References

Discover Life
iNaturalist
ITIS

Works Cited

1.Bees of the eastern United States
Mitchell T.B. 1962. Tech. Bull. (NC Agric. Exp. Sta.): No. 141 (538 pp.), 1960; and No. 152 (557 pp.).
2.Ecology, Behavior, Pheromones, Parasites and Management of the Sympatric Vernal Bees Colletes inaequalis, C. thoracicus and...
3.A revision of the genus Colletes in America North of Mexico (Hymenoptera, Colletidae)
Contributed by john and jane balaban on 15 November, 2006 - 8:16pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, John S. Ascher, hg, Nathaniel Green
Last updated 13 August, 2020 - 12:36pm

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