Habropoda laboriosa (Fabricius, 1804)

Zarrillo, Tracy A., Stoner, Kimberly A. & Ascher, John S., 2025, Biodiversity of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) in Connecticut (USA), Zootaxa 5586 (1), pp. 1-138 : 79

Habropoda laboriosa (Fabricius, 1804)

Blueberry Digger

Notes: Although uncommon in Connecticut, this species persists in a sandplain remnant in the Connecticut River Valley. The first known record of this species in Connecticut was a male collected in 1902 in New Haven (New Haven County) [determined as Emphoropsis floridana (Smith) ] and was noted in Viereck et al. (1916) [as Anthophora floridana Smith ]. Females nest in sand to loamy sands (Cane 1994), and strongly prefer Vaccinium ( Ericaceae ) pollen (Cane & Payne 1988), although recent work has shown that this species can use other pollen sources (S. Droege pers. comm.). More recently females of this species were collected or observed in 2009, 2017, 2020, and 2022 near or in the Matianuck Sand Dunes Natural Area Preserve (Hartford County), and a male of this species was collected in 2014 on the inflorescence of Japanese pachysandra ( Pachysandra terminalis ) in the same general location. This species’ scarcity in Connecticut may be due to the loss of its required sandplain nesting habitat (Woodside 2016). Despite recent survey work in other remnant sandplains across Connecticut, H. laboriosa has not been detected in any location other than Matianuck Sand Dunes Natural Area Preserve. (T. A. Zarrillo unpublished).