From a Mountain Barren in Virginia: Andrena melanochroa. Not sure where the other shots are at this point, but here is the back. This is a small be in the Micrandrena subgenera. Most people who have to identify Andrena bees would rename this the PITAndrena because of the difficulty in identifying these tiny Andrena. This species isn't collected all that often. It appears to be a rosaceae specialist and I suspect that Potentilla (an overlooked plant for pollinators..good for lawns me thinks) is its go to pollen source. Collected by Olivia Latham, photoed by Cole Cheng.












