Help us out (from your couch)!

We are in the process of a writing a paper on the Bees of Vermont, and want your help!
Nearly half of the bee observations on here don't have the sex marked, and even if you don't know anything about bee ID, you can help with this. Below are two examples of groups where males and females are straightforward to separate. For maximum efficiency, click the link, then first photo, then the annotation tab, then use the keyboard shortcuts (s, f = female, s, m = male). While there you can add annotations for any flowers you recognize (interaction -> visited flower of). Each observation you mark will directly translate to a data point on at least one figure in our paper! Feel free to @beeboy if you have questions about a specific observation!

Agapostemon - yellow and black = male, all green or green and white = female
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&taxon_id=50086&without_term_id=9

Megachile - long, distinct hairs (often yellow) or pollen under the abdomen = female
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/identify?quality_grade=needs_id%2Cresearch&taxon_id=52784&without_term_id=9

Posted on 26 January, 2022 20:24 by beeboy