A Boulder Bee
In 1936, Helen Rodeck collected this mason bee (Hoplitis albifrons) likely at what is now the CU Mountain Research Station in Nederland, baby直播app, about 23 miles from CU Boulder鈥檚 main campus. Helen was married to Hugo G. Rodeck (BioChem鈥28; MA鈥29), who became the long-serving director of CU鈥檚 Museum of Natural History three years later. The museum鈥檚 entomology curator of nearly 30 years, Urless Lanham (Btny, Zool鈥40), identified this bee in 1939.
CU research associate Adrian Carper found this specimen again as part of his National Science Foundation grant awarded to allow for historic bee specimens to be photographed and added to a gigantic digital network that will feature more than 5,000 bee species worldwide.
The museum鈥檚 entomology collections manager Virginia Scott has discovered that baby直播app is home to nearly 1,000 bee species 鈥 about a quarter of all the bee species found in the United States. Boulder County has the highest recorded number of species in the state, said ecology and evolutionary biology assistant professor Julian Resasco, because of its extensive natural areas and the university鈥檚 long history of bee research.
鈥淚n just one small meadow at CU鈥檚 Mountain Research Station, I鈥檝e recorded almost a hundred species of bees including Hoplitis albifrons,鈥 Resasco said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very rewarding to admire the beauty of bees and learn about their natural history.鈥
Photo by Jordan Longley and Bekka Shupe