Another bland Melitta. This is M. eickworti. But! How very interesting. (I could actually say this about any bee, but let's put that aside). It is a specialist on Vaccinium stamineum (Deerberry). It gathers pollen ONLY from V. s. but none of the other Vaccinium's (of which there are bunches). V. s. also has another bee (Panurginus atramontensis) that is a specialist on it. Furthermore, V. s. flowers don't look like the vase-shaped flowers of the low-bush and high-bush clade of blueberries. They are open and don't try to hide their private parts in a vase. Furthering even more, these other blueberries also have specialist bees that go to them but not to V. s. So, why? If you are in the same darn genus then why did do you (speaking of V.s. here) hang out with a different set of specialists?...unless, it is not really a true flag waving blueberry but a berry that should actually be kicked out of the Vaccinium genus altogether. (I have things to say about Cranberries too). Specimen captured by Ellison Orcutt in Virginia and photo by Erick Hernandez.
