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Triepeolus lunatus

Published at 3000 × 2046 in Evidence for Biodiversity Insurance Hypothesis: More Species Are Indeed Beneficial

closeup side view of a bee with rusty brown eyes and legs and yellow-and-black striped thorax and abdomen. photographed against an all-black background. at the rear end of the bee, two narrow bristled appendages extend backward, below the stinger. as the USGS Been Inventory and Monitoring Lab caption on Flickr notes: "What are those? No one seems to know but all the Triepeolus have modified their sixth sternite in this way."

Watermelon is planted in a staggered fashion, so the crop’s overall bloom time is longer than that for blueberry. One of the wild bees that is important in watermelon pollination is the Triepeolus lunatus (female shown here). (Photo by USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab via Flickr, public domain)

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