Images

A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integument.

Paranthidium jugatorium, male, first record for Maryland, Allegany County

Meet an illegal immigrant. This is Pseudoanthidium nanum a bee we first realized was present about 10 years ago. It now is established in the NJ and MD areas, and I believe I saw records from the Chicago area last year. I have only found it in the most urban of urban areas on the riot of corrupting weeds that we always bring with us where ever we live.

Meet an illegal immigrant. This is Pseudoanthidium nanum a bee we first realized was present about 10 years ago. It now is established in the NJ and MD areas, and I believe I saw records from the Chicago area last year. I have only found it in the most urban of urban areas on the riot of corrupting weeds that we always bring with us where ever we live.

A mysterious group, Pseudopanurgus, not very common, probably are to some extent plant specialists, but little studied, almost for sure there are several new species throughout North America and even in the eastern portions, but yet, but yet"¦where is the young ready to embrace a new Adventure and sort all this lovely diversity?

A mysterious group, Pseudopanurgus, not very common, probably are to some extent plant specialists, but little studied, almost for sure there are several new species throughout North America and even in the eastern portions, but yet, but yet"¦where is the young ready to embrace a new Adventure and sort all this lovely diversity?

Pseudopanurgus rugosus, collected by the glorious State of Virginia Natural Heritage group. This whole group is a bit of a nightmare. Uncommon, tiny, often very similar looking and widely ignored by taxonomists. I often have to leave them as sp....or as we say 'spuh'.

Pseudopanurgus rugosus, collected by the glorious State of Virginia Natural Heritage group. This whole group is a bit of a nightmare. Uncommon, tiny, often very similar looking and widely ignored by taxonomists. I often have to leave them as sp....or as we say 'spuh'.

Putting up the last 2 in the sieres of this species.Pterocheilus quinquefasciatus. - Hunter of caterpillars...in this case, hunter of caterpillars in South Dakota Badlands.

Experimental Shot. One of the problems with macro photography is that sometimes your subject is too big. In this case this lovely very large scarab beetle would not fit in the field of view of my MPE65. I could switch to a 100mm lens but I would then lose a lot of lovely detail.

I believe that this is the seed of a planted Redbud tree. I took it as a test shot in Steven's Point, WI...which is outside of the normal range of the species, someone else provided the pod. So I leave for others to identify

Rediviva species, Black Daddy Longlegs Oil Bee, collected in South Africa We showed the male already...here is the female.What fantastically cool bees! These bees have extremely long front legs that they use to collect oil from plants, using the oil instead of nectar as food for the larvae. At the end of their legs are sponge-like patches of hairs.

Rhinocyllus conicus, the Eurasian flower head weevil, infests flower heads of Pitcher's thistle at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Its presence was first discovered in 2012. The weevil is a biocontrol agent for musk thistle, Carduus nutans. Picture by Wayne Boo.

Headless Bee. This is the tiny Sphecodes antennariae. The smallest, I believe, Sphecodes in the MidAtlantic. The head fell off somewhere between selection for photographing and photographing. One slighly unusual feature of this nest parasite (likely of Lasioglossum) is that it only has 2 rather than 3 submarginal cells...most of the time.

More Sphecodes from the Adirondack Mountains of New York. There are many species of Sphecodes. They look remarkably the same. Females, like this one, inevitably have red butts and the rest about small sculptural differences.

Sphecodes davisii - Collected in the Adirondack Mountains as part of an expedition to the region in 2014. No Sphecodes gathers pollen. All Sphecodes are nest parasites. Laying their eggs in the nests of other species. Most are nest parasites of species in their family of Halictidae...but sometimes they dabble in other species.

Red Butts. Red abdomens are not super common in the bee world BUT (so to speak) many of those with red abdomens are parasitic members of Sphecodes (fattigi in this picture) or Nomada in North America. On other continents, its other groups. This come from Fort A.P Hill, collected by Ellison Orcutt and company from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Red Butts. Red abdomens are not super common in the bee world BUT (so to speak) many of those with red abdomens are parasitic members of Sphecodes (fattigi in this picture) or Nomada in North America. On other continents, its other groups. This come from Fort A.P Hill, collected by Ellison Orcutt and company from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A species of Sphecodes captured in agriculture areas of Puerto Rico by Sara Prado. This is either a new island record or a new species as there are no known records for Sphecodes for the island. Notice the lovely WIPs (Wing Interference Patterns)

An odd story of invasion. This is a Sphecodes, we have posted a series of them recently on Flickr. They are nest parasites. They gather no pollen themselves. There are many species...the odd thing is that I found this on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. The only native bees on the island (discounting some maybe native bees) are masked bee from the genus Hylaeus.

An unknown species of Sphecodes collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County. Interesting to ask why Sphecodes often have bring red abdomens when bees theoretically can't see red. Photographed by Brooke Alexander