Looks just like a "bee" does it not?
Not super sexy, pretty plain really.
But so very interesting.
This is Melitta melittoides.
A very uncommon bee. Uncommon because it only feeds its babies the pollen from Lyonia (Fetterbush, Staggerbush if you will). Lyonia is around, but it has the problem that it likes brushy, partially open areas away from agriculture and people and blooms pretty late in the season when the area is filled with heat, humidity, ticks and few buggologists looking for bees.
It also looks a lot like more common bushes like blueberries and is often overlooked. So, we very, very rarely see this species, but it may be more common than we think. Or, maybe it is super rare. Well what is true is that almost no one is looking.
Collected in a USDA malaise trap in the bottomlands of Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge and photographed by Hannah Sutton.