The original habitat of the Sculptured Resin Bee is far away in East Asia. Originally it can be found in China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Nepal and north-eastern India. It has now colonized to two continents: North America and Europe.
North America
The first finding of the Sculptured Resin Bee outside its home range happened in 1994, in North Carolina. The area of this initial recognition is known for wood furniture manufacturing. Hence, it is plausible that the cavity nester found its way to the US in lumber.
A second long-distance dispersal of the Sculptured Resin Bee was recorded when a single specimen was found on an airplane on Hawaii departing in Japan, although the species has not been established on the Hawaiian archipelago so far.
In 1996, the bee was found in Pennsylvania, 600 km away from the location of its first observation in North Carolina. Only one year later, it was recorded in several other eastern US states.
Today, almost 30 years later, the bee can be found in all US states east of the Mississippi river. The Sculptured Resin Bee has even made it north to Canada.
According to studies, not only the US East Coast, but also the West Coast could be a suitable habitat for the Sculptured Resin Bee. It remains exciting to see how far the bee will spread in North America in the near future.
The map was published as part of the Bila Dubaić & Lanner 2021 publication in the Bee World journal. Data basis were observations from literature and public databases until 2020.
The content described here has been drawn from international research. The sources of the primary literature can be found under the heading Literature.