Centris pallida
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
Centris pallida is a species of solitary bee native to North America. It lacks an accepted common name; however, it has been called the digger bee, the desert bee, and the pallid bee due to its actions, habitat, and color respectively. The solitary nature of this bee allows for a dual-strategy mating system which produces an evolutionarily stable state resistant to invading strategies. These bees have also evolved to withstand the high temperatures of their native habitat. C. pallida routinely has internal temperatures within 3 degrees Celsius of death.
Centris pallida was officially discovered and catalogued by William J. Fox in 1899 near Phoenix, Arizona. Fox also discovered Centris cockerelli, Centris errans, and Sphex subhyalinus. This species is closely related to Centris cockerelli in terms of habitat and genus, but is different in terms of mating, color, and subgenus. This bee also belongs to the superfamily Apoidea, and the subfamily Apinae.
This bee is black and densely covered in a grey pubescence or fur on the dorsal side. The thorax fur has a slightly yellow color. The legs have a mixture of black and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Saguaro National Park | 🇺🇸 United States |
More parks will be added in future updates.
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Centris pallida sighting in Saguaro National Park on a given day, based on 32 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 88th most-seen of the 354 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
April and May
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Centris pallida in Saguaro National Park on a given day, against under 5% in July to February, the lowest months. Those are among Saguaro National Park's driest months, with about 5 mm of rain a month against 55 mm in July.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Centris pallida sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Saguaro National Park, in our data
Saguaro National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Centris pallida sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same family: Apidae
The closest relatives of the Centris pallida that you can see in Saguaro National Park (family Apidae, Honey Bees, Bumble Bees, and Allies) are Western Carpenter Bee (about 10%), Sonoran Bumble Bee (about 10%) and Valley Carpenter Bee (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Centris pallida is recorded against all the insects logged in Saguaro National Park (32 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
