What an incredible three weeks! I wouldn’t have bee-lieved you if you told me three weeks ago everything I would learn! I would have said “quit pollen my leg”. On my first day working at the Chicago Botanic Garden I didn’t know a thing about native bees. Now, I have learned all about the bees that visit Echinacea, from their size to their nesting habits to fun facts about pollen regurgitation and flight velocity. I learned how to navigate DiscoverLife and how to examine a specimen under the microscope, looking for all the little distinguishing traits that make each species special, from the color on the tips of their mandibles to the distance from the rim the hair band on the T4 section of the abdomen rests. The collection of over 900 specimen is now all neatly organized and a reference collection is all packed and waiting to be used in the field this summer. The Echinacea Project youtube account is now set up and loaded with videos of all these little pollinators visiting Echinacea and working their hardest. And, finally, the database on the Echinacea webpage is complete, filled with links and beautiful pictures galore, ready to be poured over by future bee-lovers and scientists alike in the quest to explore the worlds of these bee-utiful pollinators! I want to thank the team here so much for your kindness and for all of your help along the way. Hive-five, everyone!
Melissodes. A still from a video on the new Echinacea youtube!
