Images

More Velvet Ant pictures...who wouldn't want more shots of this Badass Cowkiller? This one from Arkansas sent live in the mail by our correspondent FT. Its good to have such friends. Photos by Wayne Boo.

COWKILLER! Sorry for the capitals, but its seems inevitable. As this glorious large specimen of Velvet Ant demands attention. I haven't tried picking up one of the females, but apparently it is one of the most severely painful stings available. Capture in Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

Anticarsia gemmatalis - Velvetbean Caterpillar - Soybean eater....this species can't overwinter in most of North America but moves north to populate bean and legume fields in large enough numbers to become a major pest, but like our other pesty moths...pretty sharp looking when you get to know them personally. Specimen provided by Benzon Research.

Anticarsia gemmatalis - Velvetbean Caterpillar - Soybean eater....this species can't overwinter in most of North America but moves north to populate bean and legume fields in large enough numbers to become a major pest, but like our other pesty moths...pretty sharp looking when you get to know them personally. Specimen provided by Benzon Research.

Verrucosa arenata, Experimental Shot, Spider in a cuvette filled with hand sanitizer, note reflection within bubble. Identification made by Lady Arachnophile

Vespa crabro - The European Hornet...this one is actually in Europe, Denmark to be exact, where the nature artist, Anne Post's mother found this one dead in her garden. While somewhat beat up, it retains its essence as a well put together as a predator. Photograph by Ashleigh Jacobs or Hannah Sutton.

Yellowstone National Park has wasps. Here is one I'm not sure what species it is, but it struck me as particularly eye-catching and so we took a picture of it. If anyone wants to put a determination on it that would be super wonderful.

Vitis...grapes, one of the wild species in Maryland. Species unknown at this time. Note that bees have little interest in grapes, most, if not all, grapes are self-fertilized so one rarely sees bee visitors here. Picture and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland.

Unknown Chalcidoidea Wasp, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, Florida

I believe this to be a wasp in the Genus Ectemnius, but I don't know for sure as I just am not a wasp expert. This one was collected in the Neck District of Talbot County Maryland a few weeks ago. Photo by Wayne Boo.

Unknown Chalcidoidea Wasp species from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

An unknown species of Wasp from the Dominican Republic, collected on a trip I took a couple of years ago. Photo by Kamren Jefferson, Photoshopping by Dejen Mengis. 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.

Unknown Wasp species from Hardy County, West Virginia...likely an Ichneumonid. Photograph by Wayne Boo.

Unknown wasp, collected in Cecil County, Maryland by Tim McMahon Doug Yanega identified this as nyssonine, likely to be ZanyssonCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

Fun wasp from Kruger National Park. Note the expanded antennal ends (actually the other antennae snapped off). Most likely this is one of the pollen gathering wasps in Masserinae group. So, you thought only bees in the stinging category of insects gathered pollen. Nope. However, in North America, these wasps mostly, if not entirely show up only in the West.

Here is a lovely carpenter bee from the southeastern part of the U.S., a bit smaller than X. viginica and as far as I know nests in twigs rather and does no damage to timbers (not that X. virginica does much in the way of real structural damage).

The other eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans). Here is the male...more blue than black. This species does not inhabit the porches, fences, decks, and cedar siding of our houses like its cousin X. virginica.

The other eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans). Here is the male...more blue than black. This species does not inhabit the porches, fences, decks, and cedar siding of our houses like its cousin X. virginica.

Ahhhhhh, the beauty of the wings of Carpenter Bees, this lovely specimen from Thailand, found lounging around the Packer Lab, Trivia = Carpenter Bees lay the world's largest insect eggs.

Vespid wasp from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is one that we see periodically taking nips of nectar from some of the trees we study. No time to look up the species group, but likely it a social species of some kind. Large too, about the size of a bumblebee in length..,Photo by Erick Hernandez.

Yellow-shafted Flicker, Breast Feather, in original colors with hints of brown/tan in some of the basal barbs, From a specimen picked up on the streets, by the group "Lights out DC" of Washington DC in 2012 after striking a building