Extension Service Site Publications

• (2021) Rare rabbitbrush fairy cuckoo bee discovered in Oregon The rare rabbitbrush fairy cuckoo bee was discovered in Oregon in 2019. Learn about this tiny bee, whose unique lifestyle is based on stealing nest space and food resources from other bees.
• (2021) Volunteer's discovery adds to knowledge of rare Oregon bee species The small stonecrop mason bee (Hoplitis emarginata) had never been found in Oregon until 2019 when it was discovered by Master Melittologist Judi Maxwell in the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon. Only one person had seen it in the wild previously, in Northern California in the 1970s. Maxwell found the bee in native stonecrop plants, which led to another sighting of the bee a month later in stonecrop plants farther north at the foot of Mount Jefferson.
• (2021) Rare lava field bee rediscovered by Extension volunteer Oregon's lava hole bee hadn't been seen in Oregon for almost 50 years when OSU Extension Master Melittologist Ellen Watrous rediscovered the bee in 2018 for the Oregon Bee Atlas. This bee had only been seen in Oregon four times since it was first spotted in 1927 by Oregon State University entomologist Herman Scullen in the lava fields of McKenzie Pass. Watrous found the bee as part of a volunteer effort to assemble an atlas of Oregon bees, which is being assembled to guide conservation efforts.