On a cliffside at Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado, a fuzzy bee was industriously gnawing at the red sandstone. Making a loud grinding sound, the insect used its powerful jaws to drill tunnels and holes in rocks, where it would build a nest for raising offspring.
The bee, known as Anthophora pueblo, is a type of digger bee native to Colorado. Discovered less than a decade ago, the bee has quickly become Adrian Carper’s favorite pollinator.
“This is just one example of how crazily diverse our native bees are,” said Carper, an entomologist in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder and the CU Museum of Natural History.
Read More: University of Colorado Boulder
The high country bumble bee is a uncommon, high-elevation species native to Colorado. (Photo Credit: Adrian Carper/CU Boulder)