Where to Find Bees 3
Killing Bees to Study Them 4
Nets 4
Netting Technique 5
Removing Bees from the Net 7
Using Ice, Dry Ice, and CO2 8
Catching Bees on Flowers with Baggies and Kill Jars 8
Bee Vacuums 8
Plexiglas Bee Observer and Pollen Picker 12
Bees through Binoculars 13
Kill Jars 13
Chlorocresol Humidor 14
Pinning 101 15
Labels 19
Pens 21
Organizing Specimens for Identification 21
Entering Specimen Data 22
Shipping Pinned Specimens 22
Microscopes 22
The Bee Bowl Trap 25
Glycol Pan/Cup/Bowl Traps 32
Flower Traps 34
Trap Holders 35
Field Trip Checklist 37
“Bee Inventory, Monitoring, and ID” Discussion Group and Announcements 39
Quick Bee Survey Protocol 39
Airplane Travel and Shipping Alcohol Specimens 39
Processing Bees that Have Been Stored in Alcohol of Glycol 40
Cleaning Bees That Have Gotten Moldy 43
Re-hydrating Bees That Have Been Pinned 44
Preparing Dirty, Dry Bees for Photography 44
Inexpensive, but Powerful LED and Florescent Light Sources 45
How to Make a Pizza Insect Pinning Box 46
Theodore Mitchell’s Guide: Bees of the Eastern United States 49
Mike Arduser’s Midwest Keys 49
http://www.pwrc.usgs.gov/nativebees/Keys.html 49
Canadian Identification Guides 49
A Guide to Identifying Bees Using the Discover Life Bee Keys 49
Stylopized Bees 54
Affixing bee wings to microscope slides – (Contributed by Tulay Yilmaz and Gökce Ayan) 55
Specimen Donations and Income Taxes (United States) 56
Introduced and Alien Bee Species of North America (North of Mexico) 56
Mini-summary of the Genera of Eastern North American Bees 59
Pronunciation Guide to the Bee Genera of the United States and Canada (and Selected Subgenera) 67
Glossary of Bee Taxonomic Terms 70
Bee Body Part Figures – Drawn by Rebekah Nelson 74
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/uasm/alg/downloads/whywekillbugs.pdf.
BioQuip Products (https://www.bioquip.com/) makes a net that is very portable for travel or backpacking. The pole disconnects into three small sections and the hoop can be folded into itself. Additional sections can be added to reach into out-of-the-way places. Telescoping poles are also available but must be treated with care or their locking mechanisms will jam. An inexpensive long pole can be rigged by attaching a net hoop to a section of bamboo with hose clamps. Aerial nets, rather than beating or sweep nets, are normally used around the hoops. A fine mesh net bag rather than the traditional aerial net bag can keep the smallest Perdita from escaping.
Since net handling time and the every field day inconvenience of trying to determine what you have captured is often a bottleneck in field work particularly for the new technician, this is a productivity boon. For those doing plant pollination studies, one simply has to sweep up the insect and, “Boom,” pull the bag off to complete an uncontaminated collection. In his paper (Sepsenwol, S. 2014. The Zip Net: An Insect Sweep Net with Removable Capture Pouch for Serial Collecting. American Entomologist 60(4):207-209), Sol also demonstrates how baggies can have kill canisters inserted and how to transfer specimens to alcohol or kill jars from the baggie.