Image Credit: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Two-celled Fuzzy Bees (Anthophoridae: Anthophorula)
This genus of bees distributed primarily in the arid regions of North and South America. There are a few diminutive species in the southwestern deserts (probably only 1 species reaching the Great Basin of Oregon). The genus is known to live in large congregations of nesting females, usually with individual nests shared by several females and likely to be reused by the current offspring in subsequent years.
These bees are extremely similar to Diadasia, and are most easily separated by their reduced submarginal cell number.