modest masked bee

Modest masked bee is a very small but conspicuous wasp-like bee. It occurs throughout most of the United States and southern Canada but is absent from the Great Plains. Unlike most bees, it is often found in forests, but it is also common in urban areas.

The female is 3⁄16″ to ¼″ (5.0 to 7.0 mm) in length. The head and body are black with yellow markings. They have no metallic sheen and are almost entirely hairless. The body is narrow.

The plate on the face (clypeus) is black and longer than wide. The face is narrowed toward the bottom. The cheeks (genae) are narrower than the eyes. The area between the clypeus and each compound eye is yellow, creating two yellow, elongated, triangular patches that have been called “devil’s horns”. The area between the antennae bases is black. On the face there is just a single line-like groove extending downward from the base of each antenna (subantennal suture). The antennae have 12 segments. They are brownish-black above and reddish-brown below. The tongue is short.

The thorax is deeply and distinctly pitted (punctured). The plate on the thorax just behind the head (pronotum) is short and collar-like. It has a rounded lobe on each side that does not reach the plates covering the wing bases (tegulae). The tegulae are black or brownish-black. On the front margin of the pronotum there is a narrow yellow band that is broadly interrupted in the middle. There is a yellow spot below each wing base.

The abdomen is shiny and entirely black, with no yellow markings.

The legs are mostly black. There are no pollen-collecting hairs (scopa). The fourth segment (tibia) of the middle and hind legs is yellow just at the base. On the front legs the tibia is yellow just at the extreme base. The spur at the end of the tibia is yellowish. The last part of each leg (tarsus), corresponding to the foot, has five segments.

The wings are clear and lightly tinted brown. The veins and the cell (stigma) on the leading edge (costal margin) just before the marginal cell, are dark. The basal vein is straight or nearly straight. There are two submarginal cells. On the hindwing, the lobe at the base (jugal lobe) is longer than the submedian cell.

The male is similar but slightly smaller, 3⁄16″ to ¼″ (4.5 to 7.0 mm) in length. The entire face below the antennae is yellow. The tibia on the middle and hind legs have more yellow. The first segment of each tarsus is yellow, and the remaining segments are reddish-yellow.

Male: 3⁄16″ to ¼″ (4.5 to 7.0 mm)

Female: 3⁄16″ to ¼″ (5.0 to 7.0 mm)

Forests, urban areas

May to September

The female constructs a nest in wood, often in the spongy cells (pith) of twigs. She lines each cell with a secretion that contains flower nectar and a small amount of pollen.

Flower nectar and pollen

Sources

4, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82, 83.

Minnesota Bee Atlas

Hylaeus modestus
USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Woodbury, MN