Images

Another Thyreus...this one white and of unknown species and from Ethiopia. You can see from frazzled ends of the wings this female was relatively old. Like all Thyreus it breaks open the nests of Amegilla and perhaps other related species such as Anthophora.

thanks to Cathy Stragar and Bill Hubick for this Identification this cicada was lounging around my moth light in the coastal plain of Maryland a bit before 5 a.m. a few days ago. Thanks.

Oh look, a Tiger Beetle. This was collected on Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland along the beach where I was hunting bees on the leadplant that grows wherever sandy shores bloom. I believe this to me Cicindela hirticollis but can be disabused of that notion by a tiger expert.

The Cranefly Orchid - Pollinated by night flying moths who come for a snack and instead get an orchid pollinia (sack of pollen) glued to their eye. Tricky. A relatively common orchid and one that seems ok with relatively recent forests emerging from some man made disturbance.

Ah, how lovely small things can be. Here is a Torymus species (thanks Matt Buffington for the looky id while you were in the lab). Often parasitizing gall forming wasps, you can see from its ovipositer that something interesting is happening out there in nature land.

Who doestn't love a nicely striped bee? Truchusa dorsalis on display here with stripes made on Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and later picked up by the Virginia Heritage Group in their surveys. This is a new state record, somewhat bridging records in the Pine Barrens of NJ and those of the North Carolina.

Who doestn't love a nicely striped bee? Truchusa dorsalis on display here with stripes made on Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and later picked up by the Virginia Heritage Group in their surveys. This is a new state record, somewhat bridging records in the Pine Barrens of NJ and those of the North Carolina.

If you find a Trachusa in the East, and probably if you find it anywhere, you are a good keeper of the land. These species and T. ridingsii in particular have just disappeared from much of our landscape. Unlike many other bees they don't integrate well with urban, suburban, agricultural interfaces as currently wrought.

Sexy Cerambycid beetles from Kruger National Park Genus: Tragocephala. Check how the eye wraps around the antennae and peeks out atop the head. Makes those plain old round vertebrate eyes seem limiting. Photograph by Anders Croft.

Not awesome pictures, but sometimes we need to take pictures of very rare specimens not because they are beautiful in aspect but because they are all we have. Stelis foederalis is a rare nest parasite of presumably Osmia species. These were found on Isle Royale wayyyyy up in Lake Superior closer to Canada than Michigan.

Not awesome pictures, but sometimes we need to take pictures of very rare specimens not because they are beautiful in aspect but because they are all we have. Stelis foederalis is a rare nest parasite of presumably Osmia species. These were found on Isle Royale wayyyyy up in Lake Superior closer to Canada than Michigan.

Stelis labiata "“ A male of a very rare species found, in this case in the sandhills of North Carolina, collected by Heather Campbell and photographed by Amber Joyce.

From Gateway National Recreation Area, is a little tiny parasitic be that Pearson sizes things like Osmia pumila. About 20 percent of all bees are nest parasites, Must be a fairly successful strategy. Photography by Kamren Jefferson and photo shopping by Dejen Mengus.

Stelis louisae, Prince George's county Maryland

Some of the Stelis groups of bees are very colorful. This is true of S. louisae....a nest parasite of Megachile campanulae and clan. This male was collected on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the mostly marsh county of Dorchester. Photograph by Claire Mudd.

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

Stelis subemarginata - An uncommon nest parasite of the genus Osmia. This one from Maine, where lots of Osmia hang out. Photo by Brooke Alexander.

Australia warning. This extremely fast flying sand nesting bee is only found in Australia, in fact, the genus is only found in Australia, and...the family Stenotritidae (27 species) is only found in Australia. The smallest of the 7 families of bees known to mankind. Collected by the peripatetic uber bee taxonomist Laurence Packer.

Melapona species (likely Melipona eburnean, but this needs to be verified by sam) , La Legítima, specimen collected by German Perilla in PeruHoney is not the singular creation of Honey Bees, but other, even older lines of bees have been creating honey to get through hard times for tens of millions of years.