🐝 MOST WANTED LIST: HAVE YOU SEEN THESE BEES?
They’re out there. And September may be your best chance to find them.
As part of the Parks for Pollinators BioBlitz, we're putting out a special challenge:
🎯 Find 9 “Most Wanted” bees hiding among 19 September-blooming plants.
Some are associated with goldenrods and asters. Others may be found on fleabanes, beggarticks, pickerelweed, chicory, or grass-of-Parnassus.
🔎 YOUR MISSION
Find the flower → Find the bee → Take a photo → Post it to iNaturalist.
You don't need to know what bee you've found. That's part of the fun. A good photograph lets iNaturalist and its community of naturalists help identify your discovery.
Among the Most Wanted:
🐝 Andrena braccata — goldenrods
🐝 Andrena canadensis — goldenrods
🐝 Andrena parnassiae — grass-of-Parnassus
🐝 Dianthidium simile — goldenrods & asters
🐝 Melissodes apicatus — pickerelweed
🐝 Osmia lignaria — Herb-Robert / Stinky Bob
Can you find one? Can you find several? Can you find all nine?
And don't worry if you don't find a Most Wanted bee. Every observation counts. Photograph the insects and plants you encounter and add them to iNaturalist.
🔎 Look closely. The next bee you photograph could be a Most Wanted!
EXTRAORDINARY PHOTOS: Want to see what is possible with a camera and a very close look? Check out Stuck in Vermont: Exploring Isaac Bissell’s Yard With Vermont Pollinator Photography, and then browse Isaac's remarkable collection of close-up insect photographs on iNaturalist.
See Isaac Bissell’s iNaturalist observations
September "Most Wanted 🐝 (bees)
- Lasioglossum marinum — Beck's water-marigold & beggarticks
- Dufourea monardae — Chicory
- Melissodes apicatus — Pickerelweed
- Protandrena aestivalis — Fleabanes & Blue Wood Aster
- Andrena parnassiae — Grass-of-Parnassus
- Andrena canadensis — Tall & Canada goldenrod
- Andrena braccata — Five goldenrod species
- Dianthidium simile — Bog goldenrod & three asters
- Osmia lignaria — Herb-Robert / Stinky Bob / Potted cranesbill