Habropoda laboriosa

Females are typically 15 to 16 mm long, while males measure 13 to 14 mm.

Both sexes have yellow hairs on the thorax, while the head and abdomen are completely black.

Males can be told from females by the yellow hairs on the face plate below the eyes.

Despite its common name it is not limited to the Southeast: it ranges from New Jersey south into Florida and west into Illinois and Mississippi.

It is a solitary bee, although females may dig their nests close together in groups.

In Georgia and Alabama it flies from February through April.

It has one generation a year, with adults active in spring; where it occurs it can be locally abundant.

The bees spend the winter in their underground nests; the larvae develop inside their sealed cells without spinning cocoons.

The female chooses a nest site, usually in sandy soil near blueberry plants.

Females collect pollen mainly from blueberries, especially rabbiteye (Vaccinium ashei) and highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum) blueberry.

Carolina jessamine, white oak and eastern redbud serve as minor, alternative pollen sources.

Pollen-collecting females buzz rabbiteye blueberry flowers to release pollen, averaging 5.7 buzzes in a flower visit of about 2.6 seconds, three times faster than bumble bees foraging alongside them.

Pollen shaken loose by buzzing collects on the underside of the head in both sexes, which is the usual spot where the stigma of a rabbiteye blueberry flower touches the bee.

A typical female blueberry bee accounts for roughly 6,000 blueberries over her lifetime.