We didn't write down where this bee came from, but here you have Anthophora occidentalis.
This species follows one of the universal North American rules. That rule says that you can either live west of the 100th meridian or east of the 100th meridian, but not both. Our friend here chose west. Now this patterns is, on the surface, odd, as, of course, one can simply fly or walk wherever one chooses in North America (if you are not a human), but this was not always the case as in various geological periods inland waterways separated the West from the East and, perhaps, helped stratify our species pool into the East/West restrictions we see today. But then again, I really don't know what I am talking about and these splits may have been inevitable given the climate, topography, and soils of the continent. I think the former is more romantic and so am not going to bother to look up someone else's more evidence-based, jargon riddled, biogeographic theory. Picture by Brooke Alexander.
