It’s Earth Day and I miss doing research with native pollinators so here’s my excuse to post about them again

The most common bumblebees you’re going to find in Tennessee are likely going to be the common eastern bumblebee or the two spotted bumblebee (they’re incredibly difficult to tell apart)

You’ve got a lot of different bees under the collective title “sweat bees.” These guys are tiny but they are extremely efficient pollinators. Some have brilliant green bodies.

(For my band people, these are the ones that would keep landing on us in marching band rehearsal)

Skipper butterflies are really skittish but surprisingly easy to catch.

Some flies are bee mimics, but they’re also good pollinators

Some bee species/genera specialize in pollinating a certain type of plant, like these who specialize in sunflowers