Animals that live in urban environments face unique stressors due to increased temperatures associated with these novel ecosystems. Large bees in the family Apidae thermoregulate in a variety of fashions including wing muscle vibrations, basking, and collecting heat with the wings. Thus, the coloration of the wing will impact the degree of heat absorption. The eastern carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica Linnaeus, is a widespread, univoltine species found throughout eastern North America. Typically, X. virginica has solid dark brown to black wings. We report on a newly discovered wing phenotype in which the wing has lost significant amounts of coloration, making them nearly transparent. Using specimens from St. Louis, MO, we found that the de-melanization is usually restricted to the distal portions of the wing, yet the coverage differs between individuals. The proportion of individuals exhibiting pigment loss is similar between males and females. We examined observations on the iNaturalist platform and found that the phenotype is found in urban areas throughout the species range. We hypothesize that de-melanization could be an adaptation to heat stress, however more research is needed.

Termite researchers on The Nature Conservancy's Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northeast Oklahoma have long been interested about nutritional resources used by subterranean termites inhabiting the Preserve. In 12-week choice and no-choice laboratory feeding tests, subterranean termites were fed a mixture of stems-and-leaves, or roots only, of four predominant grasses growing on the Preserve: Indiangrass – Sorghastrum nutans L; Switchgrass – Panicum vigatum L; Big Bluestem – Andropogan gerardii Vitman; and Little Bluestem – Schizachyrium scoparium (Michx.). Termites consumed all of these food choices but preferred roots compared with stems and leaves. In choice feeding tests, termites preferred Switchgrass roots. In no-choice feeding tests, roots of Indiangrass and Big Bluestem were consumed in greatest amounts. All four grasses were palatable to Reticulitermes tibialis, a subterranean termite common throughout the Preserve.

It has been proposed that pollen nutritional content is the most important factor in the selection of flowers by bees. We hypothesized that pollen and nectar quality affect bee visitation among co-flowering plant species. We also hypothesized that increased soil fertility increases pollen nutritional content and subsequently floral visitation. We conducted two field studies to test these hypotheses. In the first experiment, we recorded the following taxa groups of bees: 1) Apis mellifera (L.), 2) Bombus ternarius Say, 3) Bombus spp., and 4) Other Bees (solitary bees); visiting the following plants: Helianthus annuus L., Gaillardia aristata Pursh, Borago officinalis L., and Phacelia tanacetifolia Bentham. We measured the number of open flowers, corolla depth, flower diameter and nutritional content of pollen and nectar to determine which characteristics were correlated with bee visitation to flowers. We found that bees in different taxa foraged preferentially on one or several of the four plant species, and that pollen amino acid profile was associated with the amount of visitation for honey bees, B. ternarius, and Other Bees; and plants with higher percent nectar sugar content was positively related to visitation for honey bees and Bombus spp.

In the second experiment, we varied soil fertility for Impatiens capensis Meerb. (Jewelweed, Family: Balsaminaceae) by adding fertilizer to potted plants and measured subsequent floral production, flower morphological characteristics, pollen amino acids, and bumble bee, Bombus impatiens, visitation from an adjacent commercial bumble bee hive. We found that fertilizer application had a positive effect on plant growth, flower production, and amino acid content, which positively influenced bumble bee visitation rate.

Holcopasites jerryrozeni, a rare cleptoparasitc bee known from central and southern Texas is reported from the Texas Panhandle, sizably expanding its known distribution. Behavior, floral association, and potential hosts are also noted. Images of the species are provided along with a distribution map.

It is impractical to rear tree-feeding Hemiptera in the laboratory, but host-associations can be discovered if adults and immatures are found feeding together on their plant. However, solitary tree-feeding nymphs must be observed closely in the field to capture the adult upon emergence and thus learn the species identity. A spittle bug, Sphodroscarta Stål, 1869 belonging to the gigas group (Hemiptera: Cercopoidea: Aphrophoridae) was reared in the field by monitoring a nymph in a spittle nest on Ficus maxima Miller, 1768 (Moraceae) and obtaining the adult in Arraiján, Republic of Panama. Dates, a 132-day timeline, and photographs are provided.