- Family: Apidae
- Approximate # species in region: 14
- Common name: longhorn bees
It can be tricky to get a good look at a Melissodes–males rarely stop for long on flowers and females forage for pollen quite energetically. Luckily, males always have very long antennae and females, despite having short antennae, have big brushes of scopal hairs on their hind legs, earning them the affectionate name of chap-legged bees. Melissodes nest in the ground and, in our region, are active in our region from early summer through fall.
Melissodes are superficially bumble bee-like, but can be differentiated easily by the obvious scopal hairs on females’ legs (vs. the bare corbiculae of Bombus) and males’ absurdly long antennae. Male Melissodes also have pale markings on the integument of their face, unlike any Bombus. Telling Melissodes apart from other genera of Eucerine longhorn bees is another story – we suggest learning the field marks of the common and distinctive eucerine species in the northeast to help get around the (typically unnecessary) difficulty of attempting field ID at the genus level.
Regional Species List:
| Scientific Name | Common Name | Phenology | Forage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Melissodes agilis | Agile longhorn bee | Jun-Sep | Asteraceae: Helianthus, Heliopsis, Rudbeckia, etc. |
| Melissodes apicatus | Pickerelweed longhorn bee | Jun-Jul | Pontederiaceae: Pontederia cordata |
| Melissodes bimaculatus | Two-spotted longhorn bee | Jun-Sep | Generalist; typically on Cucurbita, Zea, Phaseolus, Ipomoea, Portulaca, and various Asteraceae |
| Melissodes communis | Common longhorn bee | Jun-Jul | Generalist; typically on Fabaceae |
| Melissodes comptoides | Brown-winged longhorn bee | Jul-Sep | Generalist |
| Melissodes denticulatus | Ironweed longhorn bee | Jul-Sep | Asteraceae: Vernonia, etc. |
| Melissodes dentiventris | none | Aug-Sep | Asteraceae: northeastern populations typically on Chrysopsis mariana, Pityopsis falcata |
| Melissodes desponsus | Thistle longhorn bee | Jul-Sep | Asteraceae: Cirsium |
| Melissodes druriellus | Drury’s longhorn bee | Aug-Oct | Asteraceae: Solidago, Symphyotrichum, etc. |
| Melissodes illatus | none | Jul-Aug | Asteraceae: Solidago, Rudbeckia, Heliopsis, etc. |
| Melissodes niveus | Snowy longhorn bee | Aug-Sep | Asteraceae: Heliopsis, Rudbeckia, Boltonia, etc. |
| Melissodes subillatus | none | Jun-Jul | Asteraceae: Heliopsis, Rudbeckia, Coreopsis, etc. |
| Melissodes trinodis | Dark-veined longhorn bee | Jun-Sep | Asteraceae: Helianthus, Heliopsis, Rudbeckia, etc. |
| Melissodes wheeleri | Wheeler’s longhorn bee | Jun-Jul | Asteraceae: Rudbeckia, Ratibida, etc. |