Bee Diversity

I've found myself interested in species dieversity lately. It started over the winter and spring, when I noticed the surprising variety of birds visible on my drive to and from work. There aren't many people out on the suburban streets during the day -- they're all at work, of course -- so birds are my "people-watching" opportunity. I see everything from hawks to swifts to herons and some sort of black egret-looking thing (gotta get a picture of those at some point).

Today after lunch, I noticed a patch of flowering plants. The plants were in the midst of an aggressive blossom, exploding with tight clusters of small fuschia flowers. The reason they got my attention was because, out of the corner of my eye, they seemed to be moving. On closer examination they were teaming with bees. I counted at least four distinct species, including honeybees, a bumble bee and a green-metallic sweat bee. There was also a tiny -- 5-10mm -- species flitting from blossom to blossom. I plan to take pictures tomorrow.

Doing a little research, I found a survey in Carlinville, Illinois, that revisits a turn-of-the-century bee survey. The more recent study found 140 species; the original survey documented 296.