Apr 9, 2020
Ah, now we have the start of a series of bee pictures from Slovakia from specimens given to us by Peter Šima (bee and, in particular, bumble bee expert) who did most of the determinations. The Slovakian bee at hand was collected on the Levee of the Nitra river (Nábrežná) by Nové Zámky. This bee is a European counterpart of our Orchard Bee. So counterparty is it that it was introduced into California to pollinate the Almond Orchard. This was during the era of USDA bad idea bee introductions of which two are now pesty introduced species here to stay and the others (like this one) appear to have not taken. The world is littered with these "what could go wrong?" introductions. Photo by Cole Cheng.