David Cappaert

Bee Taxonomy

It isn't hard to learn how to diagnose genus, the first step in making an ID. However to label a specimen Andrena sp. is rarely useful for research, because each of the 500+ US Andrena species has a distinct ecological niche. How do you get to species for difficult taxa? If you are lucky, you'll have access to a specialist, and/or a reference collection. If you are like most of us, you will have to figure it out from keys, which are often hard to find, and hard to interpret. After spending a thousand difficult hours navigating keys, I assigned myself the task of creating ID resources for non-specialists.

Glossary of terms that describe bees: a guide for the non-taxonomist

Many of the essential keys were written long ago, by authors that employed specialized vocabulary. But good luck googling a useful definition of median crista or hypostomal carina. So I created an A-Z glossary, populated with detailed photos that will compare with what a user sees through a microscope. This is useful; I get ~1500 page views/week.

I was incredibly lucky to collaborate with Amanda Konishi, who provided detailed, hyperlinked line drawings to illustrate key morphology.

Andrena deconstructed: a guide to the characters of the Discoverlife ke y

Andrena - mining bees - are challenging. The Discoverlife guide is a user-friendly interactive key that might get you to species. Or not; you'll still need to make tricky calls on subtle characters. So I made this resource to illustrate the morphology, using detailed focus-stacked images.

Species diagnoses - Andrena & Osmia

Making an ID is typically a solitary endeavor. What I've done with the diagnosis pages is to "show my work," explaining why I have decided on the ID, as informed by Discoverlife and primary literature. These are proof-of-concept models; I would love to see parallel efforts for other taxa.

Besides modeling an approach to diagnosis, I am also inviting anyone to challenge my species hypothesis.

Macro technique Notes about how I do it.

My goal in making specimen and trait images is to register detail comparable to what is seen through a microscope. This requires focus-stacking (definition) and a somewhat complicated work flow. My approach is just one way to do it.

Detail of 3 mm weevil parasitoid, through 10Xlens on DSLR.

Other pages

Identikit keys. I experimented with writing keys using free software that generates interactive keys, based on csv files. Andrena Subgenera of the PNW is based on Discoverlife data, for the subset of taxa found in the Pacific Northwest.
Weak-veined Lasioglossum of the Prairie Pollinator Project has a limited use case: Define the species and morphospecies as used for a pollinator network project.
Ceratina of the PNW covers just the 8 or 9 species to be seen in OR/WA.

Insect associates of endangered PNW plant species is a set of photographs highlighting visitors to endangered plants being studied by Quamash EcResearch.
Beyond Honeybees is an annotated gallery of 10 kinds of bees gardeners can expect to see in Washtenaw County.
Pollinator networks of spring ephemerals was a 2026 study that identified 1100 insects collected from flowers in wooded preserves. Links to images and data here.