A new hope: One of North America's rarest bees has its known range greatly expanded

April 16, 2018, 

The specimen of Epeoloides pilosulus from Alberta, Canada. Credit: Ryan Oram, Royal Saskatchewan Museum

The Macropis Cuckoo Bee is one of the rarest bees in North America, partly because of its specialized ecological associations. It is a nest parasite of oil-collecting bees of the genus Macropis which, in turn, are dependent on oil-producing flowers of the genus Lysimachia.