Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge

This is a summary of bee data from 4 fields from the Edwin B. Forsythe NWR collected on August 26th and 27th 2008. Each field was sampled with 5 fluorescent yellow, 5 fluorescent blue, and 5 white 3.25 ounce bowl traps.

A complete table of the data is available from Leo Shapiro (lshapiro@umd.edu), Sam Droege (sdroege@usgs.gov), or the refuge biologist.

Below is a table of the site numbers and the brief site description.

Description	Site
EBFNWR Site 1	5591
EBFNWR Site 2	5592
EBFNWR Site 3	5593
EBFNWR Site 4	5594

Below is a table of the results by site:

Species	5594	5591	5592	5593	Grand Total
Agapostemon virescens	1				1
Apis mellifera	1	1			2
Augochlorella aurata			13		13
Ceratina calcarata	1				1
Colletes mitchelli				1	1
Epeolus lectoides	1				1
Epeolus scutellaris	2	3			5
Halictus ligatus/poeyi	1	1			2
Lasioglossum bruneri		1			1
Lasioglossum tegulare			7		7
Lasioglossum pilosum		3		2	5
Lasioglossum planatum		2	7		9
Megachile mendica	1				1
Melissodes bimaculata			4	1	5
Melissodes denticulata		1			1
Ptilothrix bombiformis	4	1		2	7
Grand Total	12	13	31	6	62

These 4 fields are located on the mainland side of the refuge in fields near or adjacent to the Sound's salt marshes. You can see the marsh influence in the presence of Ptilothrix bombiformis, a hibiscus specialist. You can also clearly see the influence of very deep sand deposits in the presence of Colletes mitchelli and its nest parasite Epeolus lectoides. Both of these species only occur in dune systems or in sandhill areas such as those found at Carolina Sandhills NWR and as such they are quite uncommon and localized. It's interesting to see that they occur in the open fields on the mainland side away from the actual dune line. These occurrences provide strong support, in our opinion, for keeping these fields open.

The map below shows records in yellow for Epeolus lectoides and in blue for Colletes mitchelli.

Here is Epeolus cruciger taken by Nigel Jones in the U.K. to give you a feel for what Epeolus looks like.



Numbers of bees were on the low side and there was less uniformity among the lists of species from the different fields compared to some of the other refuges, but it's not obvious how to interpret this.


Sam and Leo

Happy insect! what can be
In happiness compared to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
They dewy morning's gentle wine,
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill;
'Tis filled wherever thou dost tread,
Nature's self thy Ganymede

-Cowley