An Annotated Checklist of the Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Vermont with Conservation Status and Natural History Notes

Spencer P. Hardy^1,*, Michael Veit², Joan Milam³, John S. Ascher⁴, Nathaniel Sharp¹, Michael T. Hallworth¹, Mark Ferguson⁵, Leif Richardson⁶, Charlie Nicholson^7,8, Taylor H. Ricketts^8,9, Jason Gibbs¹⁰, and Kent P. McFarland^1,*

¹Vermont Center for Ecostudies,Vermont Atlas of Life, Norwich, VT 05055.²Pepperell, MA 01463. ³University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003. ⁴Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117543. ⁵Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, Montpelier, VT 05601.⁶Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Portland, OR, 97232.⁷Department of Biology, Marine Biology, and Environmental Science, Roger Williams University, Bristol, RI 02809. ⁸Rubenstein School for Environment and Natural Resources, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405. ⁹Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405. ¹⁰Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2, Canada. *Corresponding author.

Northeastern Naturalist, Volume 32, Monograph 27 (2025): 1–73

First published early online: 20 October 2025

Abstract
This is the first comprehensive checklist and conservation assessment of the bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) fauna of the State of Vermont. This checklist of 351 species (plus 1 morphospecies) is based on 79,206 open-access data records available from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), nearly all (98%) of which were identified by an author or trusted collaborator, including 100% of the 24,270 research-grade observations from the community science platform iNaturalist. Through fieldwork and digitization of museum collections, we documented 9 species previously unreported from New England and as many as 24 novel host–parasite relationships. Overall, Vermont shares much of the bee fauna of neighboring states, with a notable contingent of northern and western species not regularly found elsewhere in New England or New York. Conservation rankings indicate that as many as 60% of the bee species in the state are vulnerable (S3 or lower). Detailed species accounts are provided as supplementary material, which cover the phenology, state-wide distribution, conservation status, and floral preferences of Vermont’s bee fauna.

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