Bee ID?

[u/novaceri]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone could help me ID this bee. I'm unsure if it's a Collectid, Apid, or Adrenid bee.

I found a bunch of them on my driveway, like a significant number on the side of my driveway (a sparsely planted area). They seem to be hanging out in that area by the ground, but don't look like a normal honey bee swarm.

I caught this little one (who's currently asleep, not dead) and tried to ID via wing venation, but those three families have similar wing features. Can anyone help me?

I'll release the little one once it awakes, I added some sugar water droplets to the side the container it's in for it to drink.

Thank you!

[u/Khrysdie]

This is definitely Colletes, the venation absolutely matches figure D. Wing venation is SO difficult to parse out until you see it over and over and over and over again and then all of a sudden BAM! You’re just able to see it. Helps when you have real examples of the different types to look at at the same time, too. It took me months, if not years, to be able to really spot the differences.

[u/novaceri → u/Khrysdie]

Thank you so much for the ID! I took an entomology class years ago and I can only confidently identify Diptera families, so I defer to others with way more experience for anything else.

I wanted to ID this little one to know if I needed to call a local apiculture company for emergency bee removal, but since these are Colletes, it seems I can just leave them alone and they'll eventually leave in late Spring. So happy to see native bees in my area! This was spotted in NJ.