Mesoxaea texana update from the South Texas Sand Sheet, and guess what? The Protoxaea gloriosa are back!!!!!!!

**Male *Protoxaea gloriosa* nectaring on *Waltheria indica* on May 21, 2025! It’s been four long years since I last laid eyes on them!**

by C. M. Rich, Texas Master Naturalist

Dear Fellow Nature Enthusiast,

As I was making the rounds on my little place out in the South Texas Sand Sheet on Saturday, May 17, 2025, scouting for bees, birds, butterflies, and blooms, I was ecstatic to see and record a male Mesoxaea texana (Mt) nectaring on Waltheria indica once again! Just like clockwork, and according to the records I have been keeping in my phenology journal, it was time for Mt to return!

The male Mt, which I have affectionately nicknamed “El Guapo” back in 20221” did not disappoint me. However, what made El Guapo’s sighting even more remarkable is that it was heralded just moments before by its fellow subfamily Oxaeinae member, the Protoxaea gloriosa!

The Protoxaea gloriosa, which I affectionately nicknamed “El Glorioso” back in 2021, was also nectaring on Waltheria indica!

Alternate view of the male *Protoxaea gloriosa* nectaring on *Waltheria indica.*

As an aside, the last Protoxaea gloriosa that I recorded on my place was in the Spring of 2021. Remaining hopeful that “El Gloriosa” would one day return, I have been looking for them ever since. It only took approximately four (4) years of waiting, and it was worth it! Now, I have given myself a photo / video challenge: Record as much of “El Glorioso” as possible.

*Protoxaea gloriosa* caught in a Lynx spider’s deadly embrace circa May 2021.

My phenology records show a cyclical trend—maybe pattern or cycle might be better descriptions—on the amount of time I might expect to see the Mesoxaea texana and indicate that I will get to document the male a few weeks before the female Mesoxaea texana show up. The overall trends on when the cycle starts and stops for this rare native bee, according to my phenology journal data entries, demonstrate that its arrival on the South Texas Sand Sheet has historically been from the months of May to June—even sometimes carrying over into the first week of July.

Last year, the Mesoxaea texana showed up between approximately May 26, 2024, through July 2, 2024. They were spotted on Salvia ballotiflora. A special treat occurred last Fall, 2024, when the Mesoxaea texana reappeared for a second cycle above the ground on the South Texas Sand Sheet from approximately August 24, 2024, through October 26, 2024. During their second cycle, they were spotted predominantly on Waltheria indica, but were also observed on Salvia ballotiflora, Eysenhardtia texana, and Funastrum cynanchoides.

Over the past four years, I have not been able to conduct the same amount of Citizen Science research for the Protoxaea gloriosa as I have for “El Guapo” because I have not laid eyes on it in four years. My luck seems to be changing this year, however! So now what? What about “El Glorioso?” How long will we possibly get to see it on the South Texas Sand Sheet? Will it be long enough to start collecting data? My hunch about “El Glorioso,” based on what I have learned, is that the patterns I have observed and documented for the Mesoxaea texana, its subfamily member, will also apply and hold true for it as well. I guess we will see. Time (and data) will tell their tale.

Male *Mesoxaea texana* nectaring on *Waltheria indica.*

I will be, once again, starting up my intermittent, random walking surveys of all nine monitored sights. I will be looking, in earnest, for their nests this year; it is on my bucket list to be able to document them! I will continue to record ground temperatures at the monitored sights, track rainfall, record what’s blooming, and generally keep my eye out for anything that seems remarkable and worthy of note during these two rare, native bees time above the ground in this cycle of their lives on the South Texas Sand Sheet.