Images

Power...This is Bombus citrinus, a female just emerged from where she hibernated overwinter and looking for the new nests of a queen bumblebee, note the sting on the prominent tail end of this bee, she uses that to eliminate or paralyze the female of another bumblebee, taking over the nest and essentially enslaving the daughters of the queen to now raise her young.

A somewhat bedraggled Bombus crotchii from Yolo County, California..."This bee was collected in the California Central Valley in Yolo County for research on small-scale restoration in agricultural areas. Claire Kremen's 10-year study of hedgerows shows the benefits of planting native shrubs and forbs in agricultural areas for native bees.

Parasite. Nest parasite to be exact. Formerly in the genus Psithyrus these bees are now in the genus Bombus, with the rest of the bumble bees.

Bombus fervidus, female, ,Queen Anne's County, Maryland

Bombus variabilis, male, St. Mary's County, Maryland, Nest parasite, now extremely rare

Bombus variabilis, male, St. Mary's County, Maryland, Nest parasite, now extremely rare

More black bumble bees from Yosemite National Park. Here is the male of Bombus vosnesenskii. This species was described by the relatively prolific Polish Taxonomist Oktawiusz Wincenty Bourmeister-Radoszkowski who pumped out a great many new descriptions of bees in many parts of the world.

Bombus occidentalis, female, Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

Bombus terricola, New State record for Maryland, Garrett County

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An early spring Braconid Wasp in the Agathidinae subfamily (thanks to Bob Kula USDA for the det) captured 3/20/2014 in Beltsville, Maryland, often associated with the parasitization of Moth and Butterfly Larvae.Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

This is picture 5 from a 12 picture invited series by Matt Buffington (matt.buffington@usda.gov) at the USDA Parastitic Hymentoptera group using specimens from the U.S. Natural History Museum Smithsonian.

This, I feel, is as piquant as a picture can be. We are a production shop, we parse thousands of insect specimens collected by many people. At times, like this one, specimens come in that are uncommon or part of a study (here from a survey of Hart-Miller Island by Gene Scarpulla) and you take what you get.

Check the eyes out on this male Bumble Bee. We already put up a spread of female B. fraternus, but the male has some pretty unique features for bumble bees. For one, the eyes are HUGE, they nearly meet at the top of the head. Only a few other bumbles do that...and the face is extremely short, with the mandibles almost joined to the bottom of the eyes.

Bombus fraternus - Here is one of the very uncommon bumblebees that are of great concern these days, due to introduced parasites that have caused this species and its sister taxa to crash. Fortunately, they are still around, at least in small numbers.

The most common of all the eastern Bumblebees, Bombus impatiens, is something of the cow/chicken/pig of the non-honeybee world. Now used throughout the continent to fertilize plants in greenhouse cultivation. Note the whitish rather than yellowish light colored hairs and that the first segment of the abdomen has light hairs, but remainder are black.

A bit bedragled specimen of the bumble bee B. melanopygus from Yosemite National Park. We weren't quite up to speed on our hair dressing when we prepped this specimen. Part of Claire Kremen's study of the bees of the park. Photo by Anders Croft.

Chiasmognathus c.f. gussakovskii, Cross Mandibled Bee, specimen collected by Wojciech Pulawksi in TajikistanVery small bees have very small nest parasites.

A lovely beetle (buprestid?) from Chile outside of Santiago. Part of Laurence Packers expedition in which I served as sidekick bee catcher.

Manuelia postica - One of the common Chilean species of bees, this one was collected somewhere in southern Chile while on expedition last fall with Laurence Packer. Photograph taken by Anders Croft.

A lovely dark Centris with blue highlights and a cape of white. Eyes like coals. What is it thinking? Collected with Laurence Packer while we toured southern Chile and Patagonia sleeping by the side of the road, in the woods or in pastures. Did anyone care. No. Chile is cool. Photo by Kelly Graninger.