BEES: ANTHOPHILA
Bees belong to the Phylum Arthropoda, the Class Hexapoda, and the order Hymenoptera, which also includes ants and wasps. They are monophyletic and form a clade called Anthophila. About 20,000 bee species have been described to science, with about 380 species in Massachusetts (Mass. Dept. of Agricultural Resources, 2016). There are seven bee families, six of which are represented on Martha’s Vineyard. The seventh, Stenotritidae, only occurs in Australia (U. of Minnesota Bee Lab, 2015).
The first bees evolved from wasps about 130 million years ago, transitioning from a predatory lifestyle to a pollen-based diet (Goulson 2014). Since then, bees have adapted to better feed on flowers in a number of ways. On the females of most species, hairs on the legs or abdomen collect pollen from flowers, and in bumblebees and honey bees bristles on the legs also form pockets, called corbiculae, specifically for pollen collection. In other species, pollen may be carried on hairs under the abdomen, as in the genus Megachile, or even internally, as in the genus Hylaeus. Some bees provision their nests with oil, rather than pollen, as in the genus Macropis. Still other bees don’t bother collecting anything at all: a significant portion of bee species are nest parasites or “cuckoo bees,” laying their eggs in the nests of other species. The parasitic genera Sphecodes (Halictidae) and Nomada (Apidae) are both well represented on Martha’s Vineyard. In addition to pollen, nectar from flowers is an important resource for bees, offering an easy source of flight-sustaining sugar.
About 80 million years ago, some bees evolved a social lifestyle (Goulson 2014), evolving into the most commonly known cases of eusociality, colonial existence involving cooperative care of juveniles and a division in reproductive responsibility (Wilson & Hölldobler 2005). Many of the most widely known bees, including honeybees and bumblebees, exhibit eusociality.
In addition to the well-known honey bee, Apis mellifera, we know of a few other exotic bees on the island. One of these is the Giant Resin Bee (Megachile sculpteralis), which was first documented in Chilmark in September 2003 (Keith, 2003). It is a species originally native to eastern Asia that was first found in the United States in 1994 and in Massachusetts in 2002. Apparently the result of accidental introduction, Osmia taurus and Osmia cornifrons are now quite widely distributed across the eastern United States. Megachile rotundata has been found in Correllus State Forest. Since we do not yet have a wasp section, it is worth mentioning here that at least two potentially invasive vespid wasps, Polistes dominula and Vespula germanica, have also colonized Martha’s Vineyard.
Our checklist takes as its basis the magisterial 2010-2011 study of Martha’s Vineyard bees coordinated by Paul Goldstein and John Ascher, with results published in 2016 (Goldstein and Ascher 2016). The authors and their many volunteer collaborators surveyed more than 60 sites on the island and collected more than 14,500 specimens, documenting 182 species for the island. Goldstein and Ascher also documented four Vineyard species identified from museum collections, included in our checklist, bringing the number of documented Vineyard species to 186.
Since the appearance of that publication, 17 additional species – Andrena bisalicis, A. ilicis, A. kalmiae, A. alleghaniensis, A. cornelli, Protandrena compositarum, Sphecodes brachycephalus, Perdita bradleyi, Coelioxys modesta, C. octodentatus, Megachile rotundata, M. inimica, Osmia taurus, O. cornifrons, Melissodes subillatus, Epeolus inornatus, and Nomada australis – have been documented on Martha’s Vineyard by some combination of “Research Grade” observations in iNaturalist and specimens in the BiodiversityWorks collection. At least three other species, Andrena brevipalpis, Sphecodes johnsonii, and Coelioxyx sayi, are listed for Dukes County in Veit et al. 2021, though we have been unable to trace these records and are therefore uncertain whether they reflect Martha’s Vineyard occurrences (Dukes County records could be from Gosnold and the Elizabeth Islands rather than from Martha’s Vineyard). In any case, all three of those species are now documented for Martha’s Vineyard by specimens in the BiodiversityWorks collection. This brings the tally of bees known from Martha’s Vineyard to 206, validating Goldstein and Ascher’s (2016) estimate that the true number of species on the island likely exceeds 200.
It is also worth mentioning a puzzling female Andrena collected from a crab apple blossom at North Tabor Farm, Chilmark, on May 6, 2023. Michael Veit has assigned this bee – correctly, we are confident – to the somewhat myserious taxon Andrena miserabilis miserabilis. Distinctly larger than the typical form of A. miserabilis, which is a fairly common bee on Martha’s Vineyard, and with a clearly different pattern of pitting on the clypeus, A. m. miserabilis is said to be, not a subspecies in the usual sense of a fairly distinct form occupying part of the overall range of a species, but rather an extreme form that can turn up anywhere in the range of the species.
Many other specimens in the BiodiversityWorks collection have not yet been identified beyond genus level, and some of these may of course represent additional species once they receive expert attention. Moreover, new arrivals are possible and indeed can be expected, in addition to whatever species are currently present but overlooked. So substantial work remains to be done in exploring the Vineyard’s bee fauna. Finally, we should note that the Halictid bee that Goldstein and Ascher (2016) included as Augochloropsis metallica has been re-named Augochloropsis viridula here, following a 2022 taxonomic change. And following a 2024 taxonomic revision, the taxon Goldstein and Ascher (2016) treated as Agapostemon texanus is listed here as Agapostemon subtilior.
Goldstein and Ascher (2016) found that 74% of the island’s bees are soil-nesters, and half are solitary, both comparable with Massachusetts-wide numbers. The nine most abundant species found in the survey were eusocial halictine sweat bees.
Andrea Brown; edited by Matt Pelikan, December 27, 2024
References:
Goldstein, P. and J. Ascher (2016). Taxonomic and Behavioral Composition of an Island Fauna: A Survey of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 118(1), 37-92.
Goulson, D. (2014, April 25). The Beguiling History of Bees [Excerpt]. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-beguiling-history-of-bees-excerpt/Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (2016). Massachusetts Pollinator Protection Plan.
University Of Minnesota Bee Lab. (2015, January 27). Bee Diversity. Retrieved from www.beelab.umn.edu/bees/bee-diversity
Viet, M. F., et al. (2021). A Checklist of the Bees of Massachusetts (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophia). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society, 94(2), 81-157.
Wilson, E. O. and B. Hölldobler (2005). Eusociality: Origin and consequences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102(38), 13367-13371.
Web Resources:
https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q The Discover Life bee guide section features extensive identification keys and species accounts for bees and apoid wasps. Much of the wasp material here is incomplete or experimental, but the Discover Life bee ID keys are effective and often more user-friendly than traditional dichotomous keys.