Help... I am writing a little bit about Psithyrus color patterns. But I haven't personally seen many living Psithyrus. I have noticed that, in many of the museum specimes <i've seen of P. ashtoni and of P. variabilis, the bee is brown, not black. That is, both the hair and the cuticle are medium brown. I am wondering if this brown color is an artifact - i.e., the bee was originally black, but it faded while sitting in boxes with chemicals over the years - or if live Psithyrus really ARE brown sometimes. \ Has anyone seen a brown Psithyrus in the field? I don't want to say they are sometimes brown if it's not true. (ps - this means you, if you've seen one - please... thanks.) Liz Day University of Illinois at Chicago [log in to unmask]