The Bees of the Southern Lake Michigan Region

Laura Rericha, along with colleagues Robert Jean and Michael Arduser, is working on a bee fauna for the Southern Lake Michigan Region, which is 47 counties in four states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Key aspects of this biological monograph include the following:

• 479 bee species, vouchered by both historical and contemporary specimens housed in private and public institutions.
• Thousands of hours spent by the authors in the field collecting bees, primarily from remnant habitats.
• Collections of numerous species heretofore unknown from the region and/or from the states in which they have been collected.
• Addition to the knowledge base of numerous bee species’ habitats, including their ecological relationships with specific plant species.
• Short discussions on the life histories of each bee species.
• Comparisons between cohorts of bees of the region’s natural divisions and accounts of regional uniqueness among the groups.
• Discussion on the collection history of bee species and significance to historical context.
• Examination of historical trends of the region’s floral phenology as a relationship to bee emergence and the latter’s potential movement northward.
• Creation of taxonomic keys, with high-quality imagery, for speciose groups of bees, such as for the genus Andrena.

News & Updates

• March–July 2019: With Gerould Wilhelm, Laura teaches a classroom and field seminar on the Natural Areas of the Southern Lake Michigan Region.

• February 2019: Laura presents on "The Bees of the Southern Lake Michigan Region and Their Ecological Significance" at the 2019 Wild Things Conference in Rosemont, Illinois.

• November 2018: Laura Rericha speaks at the Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society's Annual Conference. She presented on "The Pollination Biology of Flowers and Their Symbionts". Her talk begins at around the 1 hour, 58 minutes mark. View the presentation here.