At any given time, the soil under Texans’ feet is active with an abundance of ground-dwelling critters, from venomous snakes and plump prairie dogs to redheaded centipedes, surly badgers, snapping turtles, and horror-movie worms that secrete neurotoxins and split into two when chopped. Investigate that weird hole in your backyard at your own peril. Scientists are learning more about the critters below us all the time, and they’ve just uncovered a new one: Andrena androfovea, a reclusive, solitary ground-nesting bee with a blue-tinged body and no fangs or claws or even a stinger, thank heavens. So far, this harmless hoverer has been found only in Texas and Oklahoma, according to a recent study in the journal Ecology and Evolution, which describes a new species and…
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