Images

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.

Experiment: This specimen has previously been photographed and uploaded to our account. The difference is that I have cleaned the specimen by rehydrating it overnight floating on foam in a tupper ware container of water and then vigorously washing it in hot soapy water by dunking the specimen on the pin into another plastic container and shaking.

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.

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

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.

Sphecodes tainoi captured in agriculture areas of Puerto Rico by Sara Prado. This is a new island record, previously there were no known records for Sphecodes for the island.Notice the lovely WIPs (Wing Interference Patterns)

Tiny Oxyopes spider (thanks Bob Kallal for id) only resolvable using a 10x microscope objective attached to a 200mm lens....so much going on amidst those blades of long grass in the tiny pastures we allow to grow, where complicated comings and goings occur in such grand webs of complexity that mowing becomes not just conformity...but slaughter.

Tiny 3mm Spider, caught 10/9/2012, placed in hand sanitizer in a cuvette. Note cloud of hairs, might have to drag the specimen to a new location in HS to remove? Replaced the white paper under the specimen with Black and that decreased the highlight burnout on the lightcolored legs.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

This is a little tiny stalactite that grey in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. This is an experimental shot from some material given to me by the Geology Division at USGS. Right now just playing around with light set ups and photoshopping...comments welcome. Photograph by Brooke Alexender.

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

A very very variable in color (polymorphic) species in the stinkbug family from South America. I have a couple of other examples, but there seems to be no limit to the color variations this species has. How lovely and mysterious. Not sure what the research is on this thing, but it must be an interesting story.

A fluorescent green Stratiomyid from the edges of the salt marshes of Somerset County in Maryland. One product of the Monie Bay BioBlitz a few days ago. So very green.

One of the southern Svastra species. Big Bee, uncommon and probably restricted to areas of relatively intact native flora, which are getting to be harder and harder to find.

One of the southern Svastra species. Big Bee, uncommon and probably restricted to areas of relatively intact native flora, which are getting to be harder and harder to find.

Another southern Svastra species, a relatively uncommon species, but on that regularly shows up in healthy, plant rich regions. As with most of the Svastra species, not much is known about its predilections...but likely it is using large late summer composites of some sort. A fair amount of goo on this girl, lots of photoshopping out of dirt.

Another southern Svastra species, a relatively uncommon species, but on that regularly shows up in healthy, plant rich regions. As with most of the Svastra species, not much is known about its predilections...but likely it is using large late summer composites of some sort. A fair amount of goo on this girl, lots of photoshopping out of dirt.