Images

Once of our dirtball species. Common, found almost everywhere including people's gardens and in our agricultural fields. This is group (Halictus) if often identifiable in the males by the the dark spot/section on the outer face of the hind tibia.

Bees of Bryce Canyon...yep, plenty of different kinds of bees in this National Park including this darling but drab Halictus farinosus. Photography by Brooke Alexander. Photography Information: 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.

Gynandromorph. Park male. Part Female. Intersex. We run into these periodically. Maybe something like once every 25,000 specimens or so. This one is Halictus ligatus and was collected by Sara Bushman from Maine as part of her studies of coastal bees. This specimen is a hodge-podge of male and femaleness.

Halictus poeyi, female, Fort Matanzas National Monument, Florida

From the Aegean Islands of Greece comes what is most likely the most common Halictus in the region. Collected by Jelle Devalez. Photography Information: 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.

20X Lens Tests. I am posting 3 pictures taken with a "new" 20X Mitutoyo Plan Apo Infinity Corrected Long WD Microscope Objective attached to an old 200mm Pentax lens. This allows me to start getting into some extreme stack territory. That said this lens new is over \$2000.00 U.S. However, I found a scratched one on Ebay for \$300.00.

A series of 6 pictures of 3 species of very uncommon beetles that are new records for the region from George Washington Memorial Parkway unit of the National Park Service. Collected by Brent Steury. Hallomenus scapularis is a beetle of polypore fungi. There are 2 color forms which may or may not be different species.

Seems like the pharmacy is mostly full of long-winded chemical names these days....but you can still find the astringent Witch Hazel in almost any drug store and how nice to know that it is a native plant. These are the left over calyx parts from the fall blooming plant.

The nicely arrayed Purple-headed Sneezeweed. Picture and collection by Helen Lowe Metzman. Helenium flexuosum.

Kick butt pollinator plant. Put in your garden please. Helianthus angustifolius - Swamp sunflower. The perennial sunflowers are underappreciated, particularly compared to the way overused Susans. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe metzman.

Kick butt pollinator plant. Put in your garden please. Helianthus angustifolius - Swamp sunflower. The perennial sunflowers are underappreciated, particularly compared to the way overused Susans. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe metzman.

Glossy capped just emerged lava lampish sporangia of a Hemitrichia Red Slime mold of some sort. Note how some are conjoined and at this stage they have nifty transluscent stalks. Found during the Adirondack BioBlitz by the fungal hunting Susan Hopkins. Photo by the Dejen Mengis.

Hepatica nobilis - Roundlobe Hepatica. Delicate, an early marker of spring, understory species. Specimen collected by and picture taken by Helen Lowe Metzman.

A tiny be, this one found in the flat marshy landscape of Dorchester County, Maryland. There is a pair of the species Heriades leavitti and Heriades variolosa both appear to be essentially impossible to tell apart in the female form, but in the mail form there very clear differences underneath the abdomen.

A tiny bee, this one found in the flat marshy landscape of Dorchester County, Maryland. There is a pair of the species Heriades leavitti and Heriades variolosa both appear to be impossible to tell apart in the female form, but in the male form there are clear differences underneath the abdomen.

New state record, collected by Jelle Devalez in a sand pit in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Nearest other record is in Illinois!

Random Homopteran. Prpobably taken with out 10x modified lens. No notes, darn it.

A nest parasite of Colletes bees, this sharp looking, heavily armored Epeolus bifasciatus was found in Badlands National Park in South Dakota

This very very rare bee invades the nests of bees in the genus Colletes. Captured by Heather Campbell in the Sandhills of North Carolina and photographed by Amber JoyceCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Photographer: Sam Droege, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

Rare, Rare, Rare. This Epeolus howardi, a nest parasite of one of the Cellophane Bees in the genus Colletes. Which species of Colletes, you ask, as is more often the case than not ... we don't know. This bee has only been collected a handful of times in the Mid-Atlantic states and that is about all we know.

A nest parasite...an invader of other bees nest's ... eggs are laid and the host's young killed and food eaten. In this case the host if Colletes latitarsis. This rather beat up specimen comes from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge....paid for with lots of donations to the mosquito population on the refuge. Photography by Ashleigh Jacobs.