The currently published distribution of this species is recognised as Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and Ontario [Canada] (Bouseman and LaBerge 1978, Pascarella and Hall 2013, Woodcock et al. 2014). Mitchell (1960) originally included New Jersey and Louisiana as part of the distribution, but those records could not be validated by Bouseman and LaBerge (1978). Additional records from coastal areas of South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland are available online (Ascher and Pickering 2018). Little is known about the biology of this species, though in a study conducted in Georgia on the flight heights of bees, one individual was collected within 0.5 m of the ground while none were collected in the canopy (Ulyshen et al. 2010).

Of the three specimens reported here, all were female (Fig. 1). Two of the specimens were collected in Bolivar County at the Alcorn State University Research Farm located in Mound Bayou, MS. One of the specimens was collected in a blue vane trap while the other was netted from a fallow field. The third specimen was retrieved as bycatch from a baited Hartstack pheromone trap located in Coahoma County near Dublin, MS.

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Figure 1.

Female Andrena (Melandrena) obscuripennis.

a: Lateral view.  
b: Dorsal view.  

This species is monotypic and oligolectic on a native passionflower, Passiflora lutea L. (Fig. 2). Neff and Rozen (1995) described foraging behaviour and larval characteristics. This species' known range is from central Texas, Kansas, Illinois and east to North Carolina in the United States (Michener et al. 1994, Neff and Rozen 1995, GBIF 2017b); this is the first report of this species in Mississippi. All 23 specimens of A. passiflorae reported here were net collected from P. lutea growing at a single location in Cleveland, MS, located in Bolivar County (Fig. 3).

Figure 2.  

Female A. passiflorae observed on P. lutea in Bolivar County, Mississippi

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Figure 3.

Anthemurgus passiflorae

a: Female, lateral view.  
b: Male, lateral view.  
c: Female, dorsal view.  
d: Male, dorsal view.  

Originally described from Texas (Cockerell 1910), this species is smaller than Dieunomia heteropoda (Say), the more commonly encountered species in northern Mississippi. Two subspecies are currently recognised, the second of which is D. (D.) bolliana helenii (Cockerell 1936). We choose not to use a subspecific classification here, given their questionable status. Notably, Cockerell himself admits that a specimen collected alongside the type of his subspecies "approaches the typical form in having the mesothorax and sides of thorax black" (Cockerell 1936). Similar variation in other collections of this species and other Dieunomia has been observed by MCO. Ultimately, it seems unlikely that this subspecific epithet will survive subsequent taxonomic treatment.

The currently known distribution is reported only for the south-western United States of Texas and New Mexico and ranges south into México (Hurd et al. 1980). Cockerell (1910) reported collections made from Dracopis amplexicaulis (Vahl) Cass (listed as Rudbeckia amplexicaulis) and Helianthus sp. Additional observations of D. bolliana individuals collecting pollen and nectar were reported from Helenium microcephalum DC. and Polypteris texana (DC) A. Gray (Cockerell 1936). Hurd et al. (1980) regard this species as a oligolege of composites, secondarily associated with Helianthus.

Of the ten specimens of D. bolliana reported here from Mississippi (Fig. 4), nine were collected in the month of June and three of those were collected by sweeping roadside patches of Coreopsis sp. for other insects. Two specimens were collected in soybeans on the USDA ARS' research farm outside Leland, MS. The remaining four June specimens were also collected from roadsides by sweeping, but no host plant was recorded. The last specimen was collected in a blue vane trap during July at the Alcorn State University Research Farm located in Mound Bayou, MS.

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Figure 4.

Dieunomia (Dieunomia) bolliana

a: Female, lateral view.  
b: Male, lateral view.  
c: Female, dorsal view.  

Little is known about the distribution or specific biology of this species. The original type material was collected and described from Chase and Woodson Counties in Kansas, with additional records recently from Illinois (Snelling and Rozen 1987, Ascher and Pickering 2017). Images of the collection labels from Woodson County specimens indicate that they were collected from Amphiachyris dracunculoides D.C. Nutt (GBIF 2017a). All known members of this group are cleptoparasitic nest associates of Exomalopsis spp. (Rozen 1984).

Eight specimens were collected by malaise trap during the fall (autumn) of 2016 in Tallahatchie National Wildlife Refuge, located near Phillip, Mississippi in Tallahatchie County (Fig. 5). The malaise traps were located not far from each other on the shore of an oxbow lake filled with emergent vegetation.

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Figure 5.

Male Brachynomada nimia

a: Lateral view.  
b: Dorsal view.  

The recent revision of Triepeolus lists the current distribution of this species as including Arizona, California, Kansas, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas (east to Smith County) and Utah and south into México (Rightmyer 2008). Specimens have been taken from 4 May through 12 October and observed on a variety of host plants (Rightmyer 2008). This group is also cleptoparasitic, with T. subnitens observed entering a burrow of Svastra (Epimelissodes) obliqua (Say) (Hurd et al. 1980).

The three specimens reported from Mississippi were all females (Fig. 6) and collected during 2015 and 2016 in two counties (Sharkey and Sunflower). They were taken from both Helianthus sp. and from a blue vane trap located within a soybean field.

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Figure 6.

Female Triepeolus subnitens

a: Lateral view.  
b: View of head.  
c: Dorsal view.