Perdita subgenus Heteroperdita Timberlake, a distinctive subgenus of 22 species from the southwestern United States and adjacent Mexico, all specialists on Tiquilia (Boraginaceae), is revised. Nine new species are described: Perdita (Heteroperdita) desdemona Portman, sp. n., P. (H.) exusta Portman & Griswold, sp. n., P. (H.) hippolyta Portman & Griswold, sp. n. (male previously incorrectly described as P. pilonotata Timberlake), P. (H.) hooki Portman & Neff, sp. n., P. (H.) nuttalliae Portman, sp. n., P. (H.) prodigiosa Portman & Griswold, sp. n., P. (H.) sycorax Portman, sp. n., P. (H.) titania Portman & Griswold, sp. n., and P. (H.) yanegai Portman, sp. n. The following sexes are associated and described for the first time: the male of P. (H.) frontalis Timberlake, 1968, the female of P. (H.) optiva Timberlake, 1954, and the true male of P. (H.) pilonotata Timberlake, 1980. Perdita (H.) fasciatella Timberlake, 1980 is proposed as a junior synonym of P. (H.) sexfasciata Timberlake, 1954. A neotype is designated for P. (H.) pilonotata Timberlake, 1980. Two species in particular, P. prodigiosa and P. pilonotata, are sexually dimorphic with distinctive ant-like males. Information is presented on floral relationships, phenology, and geographic distribution. Identification keys for males and females are provided. 

 Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman reports nine, newly identified species of desert bees of the genus Perdita, including two species of ant-like males (pictured), which are completely different in appearance from their mates. Credit: Zach Portman, Utah State University Though declines in bee populations have heightened awareness of the importance of pollinating insects to the world's food supply, numerous bee species remain undescribed or poorly understood. 
 
 Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman studies a diverse group of solitary, desert bees that aren't major pollinators of agricultural crops, but fill an important role in natural ecosystems of the American Southwest, including the sizzling sand dunes of California's Death Valley. 
 
 With Terry Griswold of the USDA-ARS Pollinating Insects Research Unit at Utah State and John Neff of the Central Texas Melittological Institute in Austin, Portman reports nine, newly identified species of the genus Perdita in the December 23, 2016, issue of Zootaxa. His research was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship awarded in 2011 and a Desert Legacy Grant from the Community Foundation. 
 
 Unexpected finds include the curious ant-like males of two of the species, which are completely different in appearance from their mates. 
 
 "It's unclear why these males have this unique form, but it could indicate they spend a lot of time in the nest," Portman says. "We may find more information as we learn more about their nesting biology." 
 
 Some of these bees, found exclusively in North America, sport scientific names inspired by Shakespearean characters, such as Perdita titania, named for the fairy queen from A Midsummer Night's Dream. Elusive and tiny, Portman tracks the bees by watching for their buzzing shadows in the blinding, midday sunlight the diminutive insects tend to favor. 
 
 Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman reports nine, newly identified species of desert bees of the genus Perdita. The tiny desert bees sport an adaptation called a “hair basket,” which enables the bees to collect pollen as they dunk their heads into crinklemat blossoms. Pictured left (A) is the underside view of a Perdita coldeniae female collected in Riverside County, California, showing a head basket full of crinklemat (Tequilia) pollen and left, a Perdita coldeniae female, collected in Imperial County, California, with an empty head basket. Credit: Zach Portman/Utah State University 
 
 "Their activity during the hottest part of the day may be a way of avoiding predators," says the doctoral candidate in USU's Department of Biology and the USU Ecology Center. "They appear to be important pollinators of desert plants commonly known as 'Crinklemats.'" 
 
 Crinklemats, flowering plants of the genus Tiquilia, grow low to the ground and feature ridged, hairy leaves and small, trumpet-shaped blue blossoms. 
 
 "Like the bees, Tiquilia flowers are very small," Portman says. "The bees must squeeze into the long, narrow corollas and dunk their heads into the flowers to extract the pollen." 
 
 The scientists report the female bees use pollen collected from the flowers to build up a supply to nourish their young. Once they have completed a pollen provision, the bees lay their eggs on the stash and leave their offspring to fend for themselves. 
 
 The video will load shortly Perdita rhodogastra is gathering pollen from Tiquilia latior. Desert bee of the Perdita genus collecting pollen from a matted crinklemat plant near southern California's Salton Sea. Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman reports new, newly identified species of the bee genus in the Dec. 23, 2016, issue of 'Zootaxa.' Credit: Zach Portman/Utah State University 
 
 Portman says the bees have developed a special adaptation called a "hair basket," with inward-facing, hooked hairs, that allows them to collect pollen as they dive into a flower. 
 
 "We don't yet know if the bees use their legs to scoop pollen into the basket or if they simply collect it using their heads," he says. "There's still a lot of unknowns." 
 
 Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman, a recipient of the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, reports nine, newly identified species of the desert bee genus Perdita in the Dec. 23, 2016, issue of Zootaxa. Credit: Mary-Ann Muffoletto/Utah State University 
 
 Portman says understanding more about these adaptations between the bees and the flowers they pollinate may be critical to the preservation of their surrounding environment. 
 
 Beyond their role as pollinators, he says the bees are interesting from an ecological and evolutionary standpoint due to their adaptations to arid habitats and high contrast color patterns. 
 
 "Some of the bees feature stripes and others have spots, which could be patterns for camouflage or a form of mimicry," Portman says. "These are characteristics we're still exploring." 
 
 The video will load shortly Perdita scutellaris is gathering pollen from Tiquilia flower. Desert bees of the Perdita genus collecting pollen from a crinklemat plant near southern California's Salton Sea. Utah State University entomologist Zach Portman reports nine, newly identified species of the genus in the Dec. 23, 2016, issue of 'Zootaxa.' Credit: Zach Portman/Utah State University 
 
 Much of what Portman and his colleagues know about bees of the Perdita genus is built upon the work of the late University of California, Riverside entomologist Phillip Hunter Timberlake. Born in 1883, Timberlake described and named more than 800 bee species during his astounding 70-year career. 
 
 "Timberlake was considered eccentric, but his scholarship is to be admired," Portman says. "Although identifying Perdita and finding the bees' nests is challenging, these bees have a lot to tell us about adaptation to a harsh and inhospitable environment." 
 
 Explore further: Bees use multiple cues in hunt for pollen 
 
 More information: Portman, Zachary M., John L. Neff and Terry Griswold. "Taxonomic revision of Perdita subgenus Heteroperdita Timberlake (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), with descriptions of two ant-like males," Zootaxa, 23 Dec 2016. dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4214.1.1 
 
 

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 Rare desert bees spread in nine new species has been discovered by researchers from the Utah State University. The new species also had two ant-like males. 
 
 They belong to the vast genus Perdita that contains more than 700 species and subspecies of bees from deserts of southwestern United States to Mexico's arid lands. The genus Perdita still has many undescribed species. 
 
 Desert Bees 
 
 Leading the research on the desert bees was Zach Portman, an entomologist at Utah State University, who discussed the details in Zootaxa. 
 
 Portman kept focusing on a set of diverse desert bees that play a vital role in the ecosystems of American Southwest such as in the sand dunes of California's Death Valley. 
 
 His co-researchers included Terry Griswold of the USDA-ARS Research Unit of Utah, and John Neff of Melittological Institute in Austin. 
 
 Male Bees In Unique Form 
 
 The nomenclature of the bees was also interesting as most bees in the genus sport scientific names such as Perdita titania, similar to characters in Shakespearean dramas with most being exclusive to North America. 
 
 As mentioned, the most interesting part of the discovery was ant-like males being present in two species. 
 
 "It's unclear why these males have this unique form, but it could indicate they spend a lot of time in the nest," said Portman. 
 
 He said more information on the nesting biology may clear this confusion. The team studied the bees extensively by tracking them in habitats in blinding sunlight, which was enjoyed by the tiny insects. 
 
 "Their activity during the hottest part of the day may be a way of avoiding predators," noted, a doctoral student in USU's Department of Biology and added that the bees might be pollinators of Crinklemats — a desert plant. 
 
 Hardworking Bees 
 
 True to the reputation of being very hard-working, some bees in the desert have proved that they can even break rocks and hard sandstone to construct nests in harsh desert terrains of the United States. 
 
 This news was shared by some entomologists after studying Anthophora pueblo bee. 
 
 "Not much is known about this hard-to-find species and our first step was to confirm it actually prefers nesting in sandstone," said Michael Orr, a doctoral student in biology ay USU and lead author who shared the study in Current Biology after examining their sandstone nests. 
 
 They found the bees having done hard labor like gnawing holes into the rock to build long lasting homes usable for many generations. 
 
 "Sandstone is more durable than most other nesting options and bees do not emerge from these nests in a year are better protected," Orr said. 
 
 Anthophora pueblo was first discovered by Frank Parker 40 years ago at two sites in Utah's San Rafael Desert but the research details remained unpublished. 
 
 Orr relooked Parker's work and discovered some nesting sites at Mesa Verde in Colorado and other formations in California's Death Valley and southern Utah. 
 
 Having found many worker bees near water sites, Orr was prodded into more research to know why bees favor such tough labor. He concluded that the benefits of nesting in sandstone far exceed the costs on it. 
 
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 A male Perdita bee (left) has a surprisingly ant-like head, especially when compared with its female counterpart (right). Image: Zach Portman/Utah State University 
 
 Do not be alarmed, but the menfolk of two newly-identified species of desert bees look an awful lot like ants, and scientists have no idea why. 
 
 
 
 In the latest issue of the journal Zootaxa, entomologist Zach Portman of Utah State University and his colleagues report nine newly-identified species belonging to the genus Perdita, a diverse clan of desert bees found throughout the American Southwest and adjacent parts of Mexico. These tiny, shiny pollinators, many of which measure just a few millimeters in length, play an important role in natural ecosystems of the Southwest, by spreading the seed of iconic desert plants like the Tiquila flower. 
 
 Image: Zach Portman/Utah State University 
 
 New species of insects are discovered all the time—more often than not, through painstaking anatomical and genetic analyses that can separate close cousins. But every now and then, nature throws us something totally bizarre and clearly new to science. 
 
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 That was the case for two of the just-named Perdita species, P. prodigiosa and P. pilonotata, which are “sexually dimorphic with distinctive ant-like males,” the authors write. Recent genetic studies have revealed bees and ants to be close relatives, but still, discovering a bee with an ant head on its fuzzy little body was quite a surprise. And it’s going to take a lot more research to explain this striking example of convergent evolution. 
 
 “It’s unclear why these males have this unique form, but it could indicate they spend a lot of time in the nest,” Portman said in a statement. “We may find more information as we learn more about their nesting biology.” 
 
 Also worthy of note: the new Perdita bees feature “hair baskets,” a mess of inward-facing, hooked hairs that allow the insects to collect pollen grains as they dive deep into tubular flowers. So, the next time Shia LaBeouf is spotted sporting an edgy new ‘do, you’ll know where he drew his inspiration. 
 
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 [Zootaxa via USU News]
– If an ant and a bee had a baby, it would probably look a lot like the male Perdita prodigiosa, one of nine new species of desert bee mesmerizing researchers. All of the newly discovered bees come from the Perdita group of more than 700 species and subspecies of bees in the southwestern United States and Mexico and are useful for pollinating and spreading the seeds of desert plants. But two species—P. prodigiosa and P. pilonotata—are particularly fascinating "with distinctive ant-like males" that look nothing like their mates, reads a Zootaxa study, per Gizmodo. "It's unclear why these males have this unique form, but it could indicate they spend a lot of time in the nest," says entomologist Zach Portman of Utah State University. Next up will be further study of the nesting habits of the new bees. They create their homes by gnawing holes in sandstone in areas like Mesa Verde in Colorado and California's Death Valley, reports Tech Times. The bees typically head out in direct sunlight during the hottest periods of the day, perhaps as "a way of avoiding predators" who would rather move in cooler temperatures, Portman says in a release. If the bees do encounter predators, their various stripes and spots may act as "camouflage or a form of mimicry," Portman adds. Also of note: Some of the new bees have what scientists call a "hair basket," tiny crooked hairs on the back of the head that collect pollen while they're in flowers. (You can train bumble bees to do tricks.)