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Zach likes bees

@zachportman.bsky.social
705 followers 314 following 296 posts

Bee enthusiast and taxonomist

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Reposted by Zach likes bees
Ian Beavis @ianbeavis.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
And great excitement as the first female Ivy Bees emerge at that last site at Fore Wood and are mobbed by the swarming males
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Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Amateurs might get lured in by petals but this Dialictus knew better and went straight for the flower with just the good stuff. This isn’t slow motion - sticky flowers are tricky, but Grindelia is still wildly popular with most native bees. [Alameda, CA 8-8-26] #bees #nativebees
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Tiny sweat bee on tomatillo flower. I suspect the species is Lasioglossum heterognathus
A tiny dark bee hanging onto a downward-facing yellow flower. The bee is very small and cute. The bee is probably 3-4 mm long.
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 12/08/2026
More fun with mark recapture -- now looking at the territorial males of the invasive bee Anthidium manicatum
A black and yellow bee - Anthidium manicatum -- visiting flowers with a blue spot on its thoraxA black and yellow bee - Anthidium manicatum -- flying with a red spot on its thoraxA female black and yellow bee -- Anthidium manicatum -- in flight with a paint code on its thorax: blue-orange-white
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Kyle Cheney @kyledcheney.bsky.social · 10/08/2026
NEW: We’ve spent a year tracking ICE’s massive expansion of detention for people with years-long ties to the U.S. It has strained courts, wrecked lives and been widely deemed illegal. Our report, based on interviews with judges, detainees and attorneys: www.politico.com/news/2026/08...
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Mark recapture is going nicely -- here is a recapture from today of the same individual (orange-white-yellow)
A lovely Colletes latitarsis bee sitting atop a yellow tomatillo flower. The paint code orange-white-yellow is visible on the thorax
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Been doing some really fun science lately -- mark recapture on some Colletes latitarsis on cultivated tomatillos. Our recent mark recapture work across multiple bee species has been some of the most interesting research I've ever worked on
A medium-sized black bee visiting a yellow, downward facing flower. The bee has a unique code painted on its back -- orange-white-yellow
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Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Sometimes doing your chores while covered in sticky pollen and dealing with the persistent wind is A LOT so you chomp on to a flower stamen to take a few moments for yourself before carrying on. [Alameda, CA 7-27-26] #bees #nativebees
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Bionomia @bionomia.net · 28/07/2026
Insects in the Mail, a Quantitative Analysis of Charles Robertson’s Scientific Correspondence doi.org/10.5334/dsj-...
doi.org
Insects in the Mail, a Quantitative Analysis of Charles Robertson’s Scientific Correspondence | Data Science Journal
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
The male rusty patched bumblebees are out now :)
a fuzzy black and yellow and brown bumblebee visiting white sorbaria flowersfuzzy bumblebee deep in the flower. Male bumblebees are always a good way to tell if flowers have nectar rather than just pollen. So there must be nectar in there somewhere
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 11/07/2026
Tiny fervie ferv worker :)
A small yellow and black bumblebee (Bombus fervidus) visiting pink Monarda fistulosa flowers
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 08/07/2026
Proud to make the black and gold bumblebee the official Illinois State Bee today. And it’s thanks to the students of Lincoln Junior High who demonstrated the power of young people brought together by curiosity and civic engagement.
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Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
It’s been six months since the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Here is how the federal government has stonewalled investigations, and how Minnesota law enforcement is attempting to push for accountability anyway
theatlantic.com
The Death of Renee Good Has Yet to Be Properly Investigated
Six months after she and Alex Pretti were shot on the streets of Minneapolis, little has come of the probes into their killings.
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beespeaker @loriweidenhammer.ca · 05/07/2026
Agapostemon friend. #rileyparklearninggarden #bees
female Agapostemon sweat bee on my hand
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 05/07/2026
<3
a rusty patched bumblebee on a yellow flowers of shrubby st johns wort
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Rob 🇨🇦 @rockinbones.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
#InsectThursday #Inverts #Bees 🐝 @entsocontario.bsky.social I found two Bumbles on the endangered list . Yellow-banded on the left and American on the right . About 200k north of Toronto.
Yellow-banded Bumblebee American Bumblebee
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
A rusty patched bumblebee on shrubby st johns wort. Shrubby st johns is one of the absolute best plants for attracting bumblebees. Native-ish in MInnesota.
a lovely fuzzy bee on strikingly yellow flowers
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Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
5-4 for what it explicitly says in the constitution is incredible. They were this close to undoing the civil war entirely. bsky.app/profile/mjsd...
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 27/06/2026
Starting to see a lot of rusty patch bumblebee workers :) Too bad their favorite food right now is Sorbaria :(
A gorgeous fuzzy bumble bee visiting some pretty but mid white flowers
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Elisabeth Bik @elisabethbik.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Is science self-correcting? Not in this Elsevier journal. Two 'five-second-retractions' were never retracted, even though I reported them to the journal in 2015. Eleven years later.... nothing. My latest blog post: scienceintegritydigest.com/2026/06/24/i...
scienceintegritydigest.com
Is science self-correcting? Not in this Elsevier journal.
Around 2014-2015, I screened 20,000 biomedical articles for image duplication in 2014-2015. About 4% of those papers, 782 to be exact, contained inappropriate duplications. Together with my coautho…
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Science Magazine @science.org · 22/06/2026
Exclusive: The National Science Foundation is trimming this year’s budgets for hundreds of its traditional basic science programs by roughly 20% to 30%, even though its overall budget is down just 3%. scim.ag/4xY2KCm
science.org
Exclusive: NSF slashes research programs to support new tech initiative, insiders say
Unexpected shift in funds has meant sharp drop in grants this fiscal year
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
A tiny early Bombus rufocinctus male. Earliest I've ever seen one
a tiny fuzzy bumblebee male on clover flowers. Note the longer antennae and lack of corbicula
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 20/06/2026
A tiny bee, Calliopsis andreniformis, gathering pollen from clover in the park
A tiny dark bee hovering above a white clover flower. If you look closely, you can see her pollen-covered forelegs have been brough up to her tongue in order to moisten the pollen on them before passing the pollen back to the scopal hairs
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Mating pair of Chelostoma philadelphi, a specialist on mock orange. Such weird little bees!
weird skinny little black bees mating on a white flowerweird skinny bees....like what even is that body shape what is going onBees finished mating, just hanging out on the flower now
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Leafcutter bee cutting a leaf and bringing it back to her nest :)
a small black bee cutting a circle from a leafsmall black bee flying with her leaf piecesmall black bee bringing the leaf piece into her nest which is in a big sandstone rock thing
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Beck ✨ @beckarooobanzai.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
1st of 2026!! 🐝 I’ve been a little bummed because I hadn’t stumbled across any bumblebee nests this year… and then this happened. 🎉
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
A leafcutter bee doing her thing on a prairie rose leaf
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Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I never get tired of appreciating Hylaeus bees, always contenders for top “Wait, those are bees?” when you point them out to people. Between them and bright green Agapostemon, quality gateway bees combo. [Alameda, CA 5-26-26] #bees #nativebees
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
A gorgeous bee. (Bombus borealis worker visiting Astragalus, from this afternoon)
A gorgeous black and yellow fuzzy bumblebee visiting yellow-greenish flowers
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jtkindt @jtkindt.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Hibiscus turret #bee (Ptilothrix bombiformis) season is here in the ATL! These look a lot like bumblebees, which is what "bombiformis" means in Latin. Males are very willing to have their photos taken while they sip nectar and accidentally spread pollen around. They're called turret bees... #bugsky
Bee with short dense yellowish hair on face, thorax, and first segment of abdomen, mostly black elsewhere, inserting his tongue into the spiky orange center of a purple coneflower.Fuzzy bee standing on the pink petals of a purple coneflower and climbing up the center.  Lightly dusted with yellow pollen.Bee on a purple coneflower facing camera, yellow hairs cover the lower part of its face.  Two large black eyes are on the sides of its face, three small secondary eyes are one its forehead with the middle one slightly lower.
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Our second season of fieldwork on Colletes andrewsi is off to a great start. This is one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on as we continue to learn about the biology and population ecology of this special bee. Pictured: a marked female approaching her nest
A flying bee with a unique 3-color marking on her thorax approaching 3 nest holes.
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Journal of Hymenoptera Research @jhr.pensoft.net · 02/06/2026
🐝Researchers documented the nesting and foraging #biology of Andrew's Plasterer #Bee (Colletes andrewsi), a rare specialised species. See what the researchers found in our open-access article: doi.org/10.3897/jhr....

A a marked Colletes andrewsi (green-yellow-green) foraging on Heuchera richardsonii (photo by Heather Holm) B a marked Colletes andrewsi (purple-white-green) digging out the entrance of her nest (photo by Heather Holm) C clump 1 of the nesting aggregation – each metal tag marks an individual nest.
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Happy to announce a new paper published on the nesting biology and foraging distance of Colletes andrewsi One really cool thing we did was mark individual bees to measure how far they foraged from the nesting aggregation. More exciting stuff is in the works! jhr.pensoft.net/article/1895...
jhr.pensoft.net
The nesting biology and foraging distance of the bee Colletes andrewsi (Hymenoptera, Colletidae), a rare specialist of Heuchera spp.
Many bee nesting and foraging studies are concentrated on common species and floral generalists. Therefore, numerous rare and specialized species lack crucial life history information, which is the ca...
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Colin Schultz @colinschultz.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Lavish bonuses, first-class flights, and a ghost mansion: Inside the unraveling of the California Academy of Sciences sfstandard.com/2026/05/26/c...
sfstandard.com
Lavish bonuses, first-class flights, and a ghost mansion: Inside the unraveling of The California Academy of Sciences
For years, insiders sounded the alarm about mismanagement. Now, after mass layoffs, a ballooning deficit, and a director’s resignation, one of San Francisco’s crown jewels is fighting for its life.
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 22/05/2026
Bombus auricomus on Solomon's seal, though the pollen is from Lamium
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Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
For this #WorldBeeDay, I present this noted innovator Ceratina small carpenter bee who thought “Collecting pollen with six limbs is fine, but if I also use my tongue as a seventh-“ Presented in actual frantic speed vision. [Alameda, CA 5-15-26] #bees #nativebees
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 18/05/2026
A lovely Bombus rufocinctus queen visiting Hydrophyllum from today :)
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Hella Bee Nerd @sfbaybees.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
I am regularly seeing male Longhorn bees in the usual spots, so females emerging must be just days away now… [Alameda, CA 5-8-26] #bees #nativebees
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Science Magazine @science.org · 09/05/2026
Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. scim.ag/4tsDqRr
scim.ag
After USDA request, Indiana plant biologist locked out of lab by school
Move comes after Roger Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
My first rufo of the year :)
A queen Bombus rufocinctus visiting creeping charlie flowers
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toxicojendron radicans @toxicoradica.northsky.social · 02/05/2026
🌻 hoary puccoon 🌿 Lithospermum canescens #nativeplants #ecoregion71
a close look right in the face of a hoary puccoon flower. it is a deep orange-yellow color and has five shallow, rounded lobes. at the center there is a narrow, circular hole, the entrance to the tubular bottom of the corolla which is hidden behind its spreading lobes. a second flower is mostly but not entirely obscured by the flower in front as well. rows of leaf bracts on either side of the stem retreat into the background behind the flower. three blooming orange-yellow flowers at the tip of a long raceme; all of the lower flowers have faded, corollas fallen away leaving behind empty calyces and accompanying leaf bracts, alternating along a hairy green stem. the flowers are seen from the side. they have slowly widening tubular corollas that end in rounded spreading lobes, set in shallow green hairy calyxes with long, narrow lobes, subtended by a leaf bract. two hoary puccoons growing among dry grass in a limestone cedar glade. they have fuzzy green stems with alternate elliptical green leaves. their stems terminate in long racemes with alternate flowers. most of the flowers have faded, leaving behind their calyces and subtending leaf bracts. only a few flowers at the tip of their stems remains. the flowers are tubular with spreading rounded lobesz colored deep orange-yellow.
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
A Bombus bimaculatus queen visiting honeyberry flowers 😊
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jtkindt @jtkindt.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Equally tiny and (to me) more surprising bee on the same flower - smallest Andrena miner #bee I’ve ever seen, thought it was a small sweat bee until I looked at the photos. (On Sisyrinchium angustifolium, blue-eyed grass.) #bugsky #macrophotography #bloomscrolling #nativeplants
Bee on flower with 6 purple petals, yellow at center, yellow anthers.  Bee is dark with some light hair on its abdominal bands and facial foveae, rear legs caked with yellow pollen.
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beespeaker @loriweidenhammer.ca · 13/04/2026
The first Bombus I photographed this year was a B. occidentalis in the wax currant! #rockcreekbc
side view of B. occidentalisBack view of the western bumble bee
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Joshua Weitz @joshuasweitz.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Massive and important positive news... #NSF #GRFP awards are out. 2,599 awards! + 1,440 Honorable Mentions. A significant boost from last year. Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)! & many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible. www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
2,599 applicants offered NSF GRFP awards!

Congrats to all the NSF GRFP award winners and recipients of honorable mention.

https://www.research.gov/grfp/AwardeeList.do?method=loadAwardeeList
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Zach likes bees @zachportman.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
Busy day at the Colletes inaequalis nesting aggregation. Feels like spring is officially here :)
6 fuzzy bees on the ground, some of which are matingA fuzzy bee in her burrowA fuzzy bee in her burrow telling a male to buzz off
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jtkindt @jtkindt.bsky.social · 12/04/2026
Tiny #bee on a tiny flower - female Ceratina strenua small carpenter bee on Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium angustifolium). (Photo taken today at Wylde center) #pollination #bugsky #insects #nativeplants #bloomscrolling
Pale purple flower with six petals (some of which have a visible sharp extension at the tip), with a metallic blue/black bee curled around the yellow stamens.  There is pollen encrusted on her rear leg, and a white stripe on her front tibia characeristic of Ceratina strenua.
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🌾 Dr. Liz Anna Kozik 🌾 @chaseprairie.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
colletes inaequalis update from this evening
a photo close to the ground. top right, two bees are getting lewd. Hiding in a hole, bottom left, is a creeper beezoomed in on the creeper bee watching from a whole in the ground, with anime eye flashes
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Season of Scaryanne Denton 🧡🎃 @mariannedenton.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Change your focus, change your life. ~•~ Male Globemallow Bee (Diadasia diminuta) in Apricot Globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua). 🌿 #Invertebrates
The small native bee’s barely visible head with blue eyes and antennae poking out of a tightly closed orange Apricot Globemallow flower.
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Tom Astle @tjalamont.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
If you're in need of a bit of color this morning, here's a metallic green sweat bee who wants all the pollen. Anza-Borrego Desert, California. #Bugsky 🌿🐙🐝🌼
A macro photo, side view, of a bright metallic green bee on a yellow, daisy-like flower, against a blue sky background. The bee is carrying a full load of bright yellow pollen.
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