Can someone please identify this ... bee?

Possibility: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/in745

It's a bee, not a wasp, most probably from the tree bumblebee family.

What inhibits me from saying is that I don't know the geographic area where it has been seen.

That's Harold, I was wondering where he'd got to.

could be a syrphid fly. It IS a dipteran so its of a fly family

I don't know the geographic area where it has been seen.

Balkans - northern Greece, southern Macedonia (FYROM)

Timur

Please be as rude to others who submit their "possibilities."

Sure, I can do that:



It's just nuts to offer that possibility. It's like you are explaining me the cleavage planes of an amorphous element.

Please post when you know something about the topic at hand.

Actually, the Andrena suggestion was not a bad one.

But I'm torn between two hypothesis, because the puzzling yellow dots on the back of that Andrena (?).

The pic is not accurate enough as to know for sure if they are not loads of pollen.

Look here an Andrena Haemorrhoa, with and without pollen:





It could also be a Bombus Thoracica:




Look what a pollen loaded Bombus can look like:

Thanks to all, and especially to you, timur ... however ... ;-)

those yellow dots and a H-shaped yellow form above them are definitely not loads of pollen ... they are 'real' :-) ... and that's why everyone here (well, those with some entomologic knowledge, not me) is so perplexed about it ... :-)

You seem to be unable to distinguish a dipteran from a hymenopteran. Anybody can look it up in google and guess that its a bumble bee but Im sticking with it being a FLY , a mimic.
Stop being a douche bag Timur. We can disagree without acting childish. I wouldn't dump all over anyone who " incorrectly tries" to explain a topic such as the nature of cleavage(Im not sure that, in your example, we'd need to consult anything other than a dictionary) . I used to be a teacher and being a pompous douche bag
is disrespectful to ones future colleagues. (Unless, of course one werea severely autistic "savant")

To me this looks like a bee and not a fly. Bees have four wings, two sets on each side. Flies only have two wings. Also, bees have smaller eyes proportionally than flies generally do. This image seems to have all those characteristics.

I agree that Andrena seems close, but the two yellow spots are distinctive and I don't believe they are just pollen marks, they are clearly part of the bee (unless the photo has been photoshopped, and I'm going to assume it hasn't).

I have looked through bee classification charts for this particular color pattern (including the brown color on the thorax), but there is no pattern with two spots like that.

I've also tried looking for Drones and Queens of various types thinking that there might be a unique pattern on the specialized bees. But I've had no luck there either.

At this point I have not been able to identify this bee.

No need to throw your academic credentials at our face, again and again.

I have, at least, as much as you do.

However, and that is the difference, I don't make a fool of myself venturing outside my fields of expertise.

By the very nature of your comments, I can see you know as much about autism as you know about entomology, which is negligible.

Btw, Rosborne gave you some hints on the methodology you need to use to distinguish between a bee and a fly.

Using it doesn't hurt..

i got two suggestions (via e-mail) - Eucera sp. and Tetralonia sp. ...

i've done some image search and i'm not convinced, however no image of any bee seems to match this one.

any thoughts?

I don't think so.

The closer I came with those yellow dots is the Anthidium but the genus is quite extensive:

whoa! :-)

which is the first one in your post?

It's an Anthidium Vigintiduopunctatum but it's not what we are looking for..

I did no such thing. If you are somehow intimidated by anyone else, stop even mentioning "Academics" , as you know, if you went to school long enough, its what you've done since that has made your experise sound, not your abilities to have produced sevel theses and disserttions. That's just a way to show that you've got the patience to see some thing through and to work without constant direction.

that's right. That's what I thought I recognized in the first pic. The head isn't clear enough to see for me but the wings look dipteran to me.

I don't mind being wrong at all. I learn ever day from folks who don't take themselves so seriously. Thanks.

I went back an looked at your profile. You are one of thoise guys whose afraid to fill in anything. Id love to have a serious entymologist on the boards. Im aware of Rosborne's training and interests in the science . You, it appears, just like to jump in and insult people who you want to "put down". Ats ok dude, Ive gotten worse from many others .BUT, real science is generally collaborative not exclusive. If youre a bugs n bunnies kind a guy, Id be proud of it, I wouldn't be some rascal who slithers around to trade insults. Did my initial post somehow annoy you? I reread it and wondered how you got all bent out of shape over my saying this was a dipteran wing pattern??
You could have shared information more collegially and less mean-spirited rather than immediately jumping out and going for the insult. My insults were, as is typical of any net based discussion when someone lashes out, a response to you in kind.

, However, I love learning and Ive never been afraid to make a statement based on my limited knowledge in a field. THATS how I learned.

If I annoyed you, I apologize. Now Id like to hear how we distinguish this bug as a bee from those wings (Which still look fly-liketo me, that is, they only appear as ONE pair of wings(like all dipterans) and I thought I see a palp at the base of the wings)