Epeoloides pilosulus (Cresson, 1878)

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 : 85

Epeoloides pilosulus (Cresson, 1878)

Pilose Yellow Loosestrife-Cuckoo

Notes: There are two early records from 1911 for this rare social parasite in New Haven County in Connecticut in the towns of Meriden and New Haven (the latter was digitized but not located—UCMS_ENT 00031791). Epeoloides pilosulus was also reported in Viereck et a l. (1916) [as Viereckella pilosula ] from the town of Brookfield (Fairfield County), and in Britton (1920) [as Epeoloides pilosula ]. There is another early specimen from Colebrook (Litchfield County) collected by W. M. Wheeler, with no specified date. This species was recently discovered in 2006 in powerline ROW in Bozrah (New London County), detailed in Wagner and Ascher (2008). Epeoloides pilosulus has since been added to Connecticut’s endangered species list (Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection 2015b) and is a regional species of greatest conservation need in four eastern states ( United States Geological Survey 2015), although a recent uptick in detections regionally is encouraging (Veit et al. 2022[“2021”]).

Material examined. Litchfield Co.: Colebrook : coll. W.M. Wheeler, 1 ♂, UCMS , det. T. A. Zarrillo 2021, UCMS _ ENT 00082278 ; New Haven Co.: Meriden : “South Meriden”, 1911, coll. H. Johnson, 1 ♀, AMNH, det. J.S. Ascher 2005, AMNH _ BEE 00010828 ; New London Co.: Bozrah : “Route 163, Plot 4 ROW”, 41.4907 -72.17985, 22 June 2006, coll. N. Bricker & J. Watson, 1 ♀, UCMS, det. J.S. Ascher 2006, UCMS _ ENT 00082279 .