Osmia texana, female. A thistle hugging giant of an Osmia..., who can't but love thistles and the several bee species that depend on them. Here is a specialist that depends on pollen from our native thistle plants to provision the cells of its young. Too often our native thistles also are taken out when people spray for introduced bull and Canada Thistles. Collected by Tim McMahon and the first state record for Maryland, Photographed by Aaman Mengis.