Unusual bee in garden - Ask Extension
We live in Roseburg and try to encourage pollinators in our deck garden. We also have had a mason bee box for a couple years which has attracted a num...
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Unusual bee in garden #748822
Asked May 08, 2021, 7:47 PM EDT
We live in Roseburg and try to encourage pollinators in our deck garden. We also have had a mason bee box for a couple years which has attracted a number of inhabitants. This afternoon we noticed a half dozen of these bees just sitting on and around a plant in a completely different part of the deck from the mason bee box. They didn't fly when poked and stayed there for an hour or longer. I've perused all the guides I could find, but could not ID them. They were two or three times the size of honeybees.
Douglas County Oregon
Expert Response
Hi Nathan,
This *looks* like a bee, but it is a bee fly mimic. The give away are the antenna, which are not elbowed like a bees, but are reduced into a structure known as an aristae. My guess would be the genus Merodon:
Thanks a lot!
nb