For these eight hours, I spent the vast majority of them finishing my book Attracting

Native Pollinators Protecting North Americas Bees and Butterflies. I also worked on compiling
a list of potentially useful articles to look at once I have completed my book to further expand
my knowledge. There were three scholarly articles I read intending to use as part of my track
work, but I decided that two of them would be used for source analyses. These will be the ones I
intend to use in my essay which, after reevaluating my rough draft, I have decided essay will
focus on specific genera of bees. This is because I feel my original topic tried to cover too much
information. The three types of bees these articles focus on are bumble bees (Bombus spp.),
mason bees (Osmia spp.), and squash bees (genera Peponapis and Xenoglossa). Only one of
these articles will be listed below as the other two will be used for my last two source analyses.
The article I read as part of this eight-hour check was used to learn more about bees
within the genus Megachile for my in-class presentation. The main portion of the article that I
read, however, consisted of only the first four pages. This is because the rest of the article went
into specific detail about 38 different species of mason and leafcutter bees that I found to be
unnecessary to my studies. Overall, these four pages did help me expand my knowledge of and
better understand the bees of the genus Megachile as there is more general information about the
genus here. Some interesting points to note about their lifestyle include, but are not limited to,
their importance as pollinators of summer crops due to their breeding season, the use of
resources such as plant resins and pebbles by mason bees to construct nests, and the way in
which leafcutter bees tend to nest near leaf resources.
This part of the book Attracting Native Pollinators spoke a bit about ways to provide
pollinator habitats within urban areas. One of the more interesting points mentioned in this
section was the potential use of roadsides as important pollinator habitats. About which, the
seemingly contradictory use of these spaces as refuge despite the apparent danger due to traffic is
addressed.
One of the main topics of this section was individual bee genera as well as differentiation
between these different genera and other insects they are commonly mistaken with (i.e. wasps
and flies). For example, neither wasps nor flies carry pollen loads as bees are generally known to
do. One interesting type of bee described in the book is the alkali bee (Nomia spp.) which are a
type of ground-nesting bee. Interestingly, they are an important, native pollinator. In agriculture,
they are commonly used for pollination of alfalfa crops not only due to their pollination
efficiency but also because of the nectar stealing habits of honey bees. Another important
distinction I learned from this section was the importance of bumblebees as pollinators. One
unique characteristic of them is their ability to sonicate or buzz pollinate, without which some
plants cannot be pollinated and bear seeds/fruit. Another unique characteristic of these lovable
bees is their ability to forage at temperatures lower than other pollinators can bear through heat
regulation. As cannot be under-stressed in the last part of this book, native plants are
tremendously important to natural landscapes. Interestingly, the resources required to incorporate
a natural setting into urban environments are not high and, especially in the long-run, be lower
than reliance on non-native plant landscapes.

A. Mader, Eric, et al. Attracting Native Pollinators. Storey Publishing, 2011

a. This book was published by a well-recognized, non-profit
organization for the protection of invertebrates, the Xerces Society.
b. This book was strongly recommended to me by my outside-ofschool mentor.
c. The intended audience for this book is anyone seeking to learn
more about and protect pollinating species (insects specifically). The book does
use some specific scientific details but not without explaining them to those
without background knowledge on pollinators and related plants. That being said,
familiarity with taxonomy would help in understanding descriptions of the
organisms described.
d. This book talks about the different kinds of pollinators and
vegetation management to promote their populations, even going into detail about
the plants they rely on. The book starts off by emphasizing the importance of
pollinators, talking about how they are tremendously important when it comes to
food production. One specific example used talks about the importance of
pollinators to squash and blueberry production in northern states. It also talks
about ways in which we can promote the health of pollinators, such as not using
pesticides and creating pollinator-friendly gardens. The book also talks about
different species of native bees and plants they tend to visit.
e.
i.
Chinas Sichuan Province requires hand-pollination
of apple crops due to excessive pesticide use
ii.
When pollinators are lost, bushes and trees may
continue to flower and look normal for decades
iii.
Native bees pollinate for more effectively than do
honey bees
iv. The majority of bees are generalists
v. The fact that most bee species are not social
suggests that solitary life is a preferred reproductive strategy
vi.
Bumble bees are often the first bees active in spring
and the last bees active in fall
vii.
Ability to buzz-pollinate
viii.
Larvae of most flower flies are ...valuable for
pest control as well as pollination
f. I read roughly 150 pages as part of my track this time. However, it
only took me about 7.5 hours to complete this amount because much of this
section consisted of relatively short excerpts about either plants, various bee
species, and sample gardens. This last section focused more on different bee
genera as well, helping me better understand this important group of pollinators
even better.

G. Sheffield, Cory S., Laurence Packer, C. Ratti, Terry Grisworld. "Leafcutter and
Mason Bees of the Genus Megachile Latreille (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) in Canada
and Alaska." Canadian Journal of Arthropod Identification, no. 18, Nov. 2011, pp. 1-107.
Research Gate, doi: 10.3752/cjai.2011.18. Accessed 16 Oct. 2016.
a. The great amount of care the authors have gone through in order to
simply compile the data of this article as well as the technical lingo used in this
piece seems to be self-evident of its potential value.
b. I found this source by searching for the terms leafcutter,
mason, and bee under Research Gates advanced search option.
c. The intended audience of this piece appears to be those with a need
for detailed data on bees of the genus Megachile considering the specificity of the
work in both terminology and data.
d. The focus of this article is to describe the bees of the genus
Megachile living in Canada and Alaska in a complete manner so as to make future
identification easier. The article not only compiles data from previous studies on
this genus of bee but also expands on this data in several way. For example,
through the use of genetic analysis, some Megachile bee subspecies were
distinguished as individual species in this text. Several Megachile bee species
were also more fully described in this text as previous descriptions were scant due
to a lack of individuals. As an introduction to the more detailed descriptions of
individual species, there is general information about the leaf cutter and mason
bees that make up the genus Megachile.
e.
i.
134 species of megachile in America north of
Mexico (p.1)
ii.
Most leafcutter bees nest above ground in preexisting cavities (p.2)
iii.
Ground-nesting leafcutter bees were commonly
found within flying distance of leaf sources
iv. Mason bees collect plant resins, pebbles, and mud
for cell partitioning and closure
v. Due to age, the shape and, in some cases, the
number of teeth on the mandible of some Megachile specimens was
difficult to distinguish (p.3)
f. This source was useful in providing information about the
leafcutter bees that I presented about. Despite the intimidating page length of
more than 100 (which consisted almost entirely of pictures and charts past the 3rd
page), the article did not take long to read. That is to say that I spent roughly 30
minutes reading the first four pages and simply skimmed briefly through the rest
as it was not relevant enough to my studies. These four pages that I read, however,
were a bit confusing at times due to some of the terminology used, hindering my
progress and understanding. For example, the formatting of some of the scientific

names that consisted of three rather than two names confused me for a bit until I
had done a search to find out why that was.