Chasing a Little-Known Fairy Bee () in a Dynamic Desert Landscape.

It is widely understood that bees play an important role in many different ecosystems, due to the services they provide as pollinators [...

Pollination Biology and Life History Traits of the Rare Las Vegas Bear Poppy ().

, the Las Vegas bear poppy, is a rare plant found only in the eastern Mojave Desert of North America. Because of recent declines in the populations of this endemic plant, conservationists are currently seeking protection for under the US Endangered Species Act. In this study, we investigated the natural history of and documented insect visitors potentially pollinating in Clark County, Nevada.

Reference genome for the Mojave poppy bee (Perdita meconis), a specialist pollinator of conservation concern.

The Mojave poppy bee, Perdita meconis Griswold (Hymenoptera: Anthophila: Andrenidae), is a species of conservation concern that is restricted to the eastern Mojave Desert of North America. It is a specialist pollinator of two poppy genera, Arctomecon and Argemone (Papaveraceae), and is being considered for listing under the US Endangered Species Act along with one of its pollinator hosts, the Las Vegas bearpoppy (Arctomecon californica). Here, we present a near chromosome-level genome of the Mojave poppy bee to provide a genomic resource that will aid conservation efforts and future research.

Assessing Müllerian mimicry in North American bumble bees using human perception.

Despite the broad recognition of mimicry among bumble bees, distinct North American mimicry rings have yet to be defined, due in part to the prevalence of intermediate and imperfect mimics in this region. Here we employ a generalization approach using human perception to categorize mimicry rings among North American bumble bees. We then map species distributions on North American ecoregions to visually test for geographic concordance among similarly-colored species.

Thistledown velvet ants in the Desert Mimicry Ring and the evolution of white coloration: Müllerian mimicry, camouflage and thermal ecology.

Adaptive coloration among animals is one of the most recognizable outcomes of natural selection. Here, we investigate evolutionary drivers of white coloration in velvet ants (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae), which has previously been considered camouflage with the fruit of creosote bush (). Our analyses indicate instead that velvet ants evolved white coloration millions of years before creosote bush was widespread in North America's hot deserts.

Reducing protected lands in a hotspot of bee biodiversity: bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a federally protected area found in central southern Utah. Designated in 1996 by President William J. Clinton, it was recently reduced in size by President Donald J.

Wild bees of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument: richness, abundance, and spatio-temporal beta-diversity.

Interest in bees has grown dramatically in recent years in light of several studies that have reported widespread declines in bees and other pollinators. Investigating declines in wild bees can be difficult, however, due to the lack of faunal surveys that provide baseline data of bee richness and diversity. Protected lands such as national monuments and national parks can provide unique opportunities to learn about and monitor bee populations dynamics in a natural setting because the opportunity for large-scale changes to the landscape are reduced compared to unprotected lands.

The indestructible insect: Velvet ants from across the United States avoid predation by representatives from all major tetrapod clades.

Velvet ants are a group of parasitic wasps that are well known for a suite of defensive adaptations including bright coloration and a formidable sting. While these adaptations are presumed to function in antipredator defense, observations between potential predators and this group are lacking. We conducted a series of experiments to determine the risk of velvet ants to a host of potential predators including amphibians, reptiles, birds, and small mammals.

Stinging wasps (Hymenoptera: Aculeata), which species have the longest sting?

The stings of bees, wasps, and ants are something that catches the attention of anyone that experiences them. While many recent studies have focused on the pain inflicted by the stings of various stinging wasps, bees, or ants (Hymenoptera: Aculeata), little is known about how the length of the sting itself varies between species. Here, we investigate the sting length of a variety of aculeate wasps, and compare that to reported pain and toxicity values.

Intraspecific phytochemical variation shapes community and population structure for specialist caterpillars.

Chemically mediated plant-herbivore interactions contribute to the diversity of terrestrial communities and the diversification of plants and insects. While our understanding of the processes affecting community structure and evolutionary diversification has grown, few studies have investigated how trait variation shapes genetic and species diversity simultaneously in a tropical ecosystem. We investigated secondary metabolite variation among subpopulations of a single plant species, Piper kelleyi (Piperaceae), using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), to understand associations between plant phytochemistry and host-specialized caterpillars in the genus Eois (Geometridae: Larentiinae) and associated parasitoid wasps and flies.

The evolution of Batesian mimicry within the North American Asidini (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae).

The asidine darkling beetles (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae: Asidini) are a diverse tribe of flightless tenebrionids found in many arid and sub-arid habitats around the world. The 263 currently described North American species are contained in ten genera, all of which are restricted to the western half of the continent. The Asidini, like all members of the subfamily Pimeliinae, lack defensive glands.

Müllerian mimicry as a result of codivergence between velvet ants and spider wasps.

Recent studies have delineated a large Nearctic Müllerian mimicry complex in Dasymutilla velvet ants. Psorthaspis spider wasps live in areas where this mimicry complex is found and are phenotypically similar to Dasymutilla. We tested the idea that Psorthaspis spider wasps are participating in the Dasymutilla mimicry complex and that they codiverged with Dasymutilla.

Ecological and evolutionary processes drive the origin and maintenance of imperfect mimicry.

Although the forces behind the evolution of imperfect mimicry remain poorly studied, recent hypotheses suggest that relaxed selection on small-bodied individuals leads to imperfect mimicry. While evolutionary history undoubtedly affects the development of imperfect mimicry, ecological community context has largely been ignored and may be an important driver of imperfect mimicry. Here we investigate how evolutionary and ecological contexts might influence mimetic fidelity in Müllerian and Batesian mimicry systems.