On a recent morning, Ellison Orcutt set out to survey a private property in Isle of Wight County, equipped with a butterfly net and glass sample vials.
He dragged the net atop plants such as goldenrod and scratch daisies, sweeping up a host of buzzing insects.
Orcutt, lead field zoologist with the Virginia Natural Heritage Program, in particular was hoping to find Protandrena abdominalis, a rare native bee with red coloring that nests in sandy ground.
It was here, in a patch of spotted beebalm, that Orcutt encountered the species about a month prior – a modern historic feat.
“It's a bee that hadn't been seen in Virginia for over 100 years, we believe,” Orcutt said.
It was only a few years ago that the bee was documented anywhere on the East Coast in the past century. States such as New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland have recently found populations of Protandrena abdominalis, he said.
“We finally have done the same here in Virginia.”
These bees likely declined largely because of habitat loss. But there also just weren’t many people looking for them.
Orcutt’s small team, which operates under the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, finds and documents Virginia’s rare and native bees.
“I do take comfort in knowing that these bees that we hadn't seen in forever, we can now turn up several places,” he said. “That kind of inspires me to really keep on this mission that we're on, of fighting for the little guys, literally, and making sure that there's room for them in Virginia.”
There are nearly 500 native bee species in the state, many of which are better pollinators than honeybees.
Orcutt said officials want to figure out which rare species might occur on private lands versus natural, protected areas.
That’s what brought him to the property in Isle of Wight, owned by the Rasnake family.
Michael Rasnake said when he bought the land 20 years ago, “it was nothing but abandoned chicken houses.”
The family has worked to restore longleaf pines, raise honeybees and plant native flora, and many species have spread on their own.
Orcutt said it’s a unique geological environment with deep sand, which many rare bees rely on.
Protandrena abdominalis, for example, is a “mining bee” that lays eggs burrowed in the sand. Larvae stay underground for a year.
“Somehow, the amazing evolution of these species, they will emerge just in time for the flowering” of the spotted beebalm, Orcutt said.
The Rasnakes do controlled burns to help their longleaf pines, which need fire to grow.
Many other species are adapted to fire that was traditionally present in the ecosystem, including spotted beebalm, Orcutt said. That could be behind some species’ resurgence in managed areas.
“Prescribed fire is a big part of a sand environment, and you'll see that a ton of native flowers are loving that,” he said.
Finding rare bees helps conservation officials know they’re doing a good job, he said.
But “I want most of the credit to go to the bees, of course. They’re the ones sticking it out and surviving in a landscape that’s not necessarily on their side all the time.”
A couple of days after the discovery in late August, Orcutt found another Protandrena abdominalis at nearby Antioch Pines Natural Area Preserve, then another at Chub Sandhills Natural Area Preserve in Sussex County.
During this week’s survey, Orcutt collected several interesting samples to take back to a lab, including an uncommon “fairy bee” and a rare Andrena fulvipennis.
No luck with the star of the show.
But even not finding the bee is helpful data, since researchers know so little about it, Orcutt said. For example, it could indicate they’re gone for the season.
Whether that’s the case — or it just remained elusive that day — is one of many unsolved mysteries.
