Images

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.

Found on Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Refuge in their lovely lovely native plant garden and fields. This large Eucerine bee is a good indicator of high quality habitat. May we see them in more than places with this bee.

Sawfly, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Interplanetary alien space ship or spadix of Skunk Cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). You decide. Picture by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Unknown Syrphid fly from last fall. Beltsville, MD Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Unknown Deer Fly form near Bowie Maryland

I THINK this is a sedge, but sadly I just grabbed it quickly while at Finzel Swamp (western Maryland) where it was blooming in clumps around the edge of the large pond located there. Any corrections to my Sedge ID would be very welcome

Ah, another different sedge from the swamp behind my house...close up of the flower head. Upper Marlboro, Maryland. Photograph by Brooke Alexander.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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

The white-margined burrower bug. Scientifically we would call it Sehirus cinctus. Small, feeds on mints and nettles. Not picky, feeds on the weedy mints that inhabit our weedy lawns. Sticks around a bit and helps its babies out for a few days. Unusual for a bug. Picture by Greta Forbes. This specimen found at the lab at Patuxent.

Ovenbird foot, collected with permits by Lights Out DC group in spring or fall migration of 2012 after colliding with buildings at night in Washington D.C.

Acer saccharinumSeed headCanon 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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Acer saccharinum, the winged Samara, how interesting the similarities between the wing or the samara and the wing of an insect. Collected from my yard in Upper Marlboro, Maryland from a tree that ultimately will fall on my house.

sora, face, dc

Spodoptera eridania - Southern armyworm. A pest in southern parts of the U.S. mostly Florida. Defoliator of tomatoes and other crops. Not a candidate for the insect Miss Universe contest...or is is? I think close up there is a lot of beauty in this series of life history shots, but that is my personal opinion.

Spodoptera eridania - Southern armyworm. A pest in southern parts of the U.S. mostly Florida. Defoliator of tomatoes and other crops. Not a candidate for the insect Miss Universe contest...or is is? I think close up there is a lot of beauty in this series of life history shots, but that is my personal opinion.

This is an odd Genus of bee from Kruger National Park where I traveled with Jonathan Mawdsley to South Africa to collect bees in the park. While a poor shot in terms of the antennae...if you look closely one of the antennae is broadened like the bowl of a spoon (thus the genus name Spatunomia) while the other is simply broken off.

Another Heather Campbell collected bee from the Sandhills, this one a nest parasite, likely on something in the genus Lasioglossum, a very small bee...Check out the WIPs in the wing (Wing Interference Patterns) quite lovely ....

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.

Cuba, GTMO, Guatntanamo Bay Naval Base

Tarsalia persica, Persian Asymmetric bee, collected in Iran. 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.

Need an ID Beetle Heads...This is a lovely tortoise beetle that Ashley Bradford showed me at Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary BioBlitz where all the it nature heads gathered to talk about how the natural world was going to hell, except for places like Pickering Creek. Plagiometriona clavata from Ash...