Images

An obscure bee of the desert, Martinapis luteicornis only is active early in the morning just as the sky begins to lighten. At least one paper indicates that they are specialists on Psorothamnus scoparius or the Broom Dalea.

Looks just like a "bee" does it not? Not super sexy, pretty plain really. But so very interesting. This is Melitta melittoides. A very uncommon bee. Uncommon because it only feeds its babies the pollen from Lyonia (Fetterbush, Staggerbush if you will).

Looks just like a "bee" does it not? Not super sexy, pretty plain really. But so very interesting. This is Melitta melittoides. A very uncommon bee. Uncommon because it only feeds its babies the pollen from Lyonia (Fetterbush, Staggerbush if you will).

New Lense set up! This is my first stack from a new lens set up that I learned from Johan Ingles-Le Nobel's lovely Extreme Macro layout.

Monster cleptoparasite, this dramatic species is a nest parasite of bees in the genus Centris and is endemic to South America. Note the one shot of the lovely expanded tibial spurs. I do not know their function, but it may have to do with nest invasions, either digging or gripping the walls of the nest. Lovely metallic blue / purple colors.

Beetles from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is the start of a series of pictures of insects that come to the flowers in Kruger. This is a project led by James Harrison from S.A. and Jonathan Mawdsley from the U.S. I was lucky enough to come along and do some bee collecting. Interesting system.

Black Cohosh, Actaea racemosa. An interesting flower of midsummer in forest openings. Seems to attract the odd bumble bee and Augochlora pura that linger in the shade. Collected and photographed by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Nectaring on goldenrod and aster, Beltsville, Maryland. Thanks to Chris Thompson for the identification.

Pennington County, South Dakota, Badlands National Park

Check this bee out! Anyone with an eye can tell how it got is name, This male was captured in the Great Basin National Park, Nevada as part of a survey of bees in high elevations vulnerable to climate change.

Yet another Agapostemon, this one was collected in the southern remote portions of Badlands National Park in South Dakota within the Pineridge Indian ReservationCanon 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

Gliding in from Costa Rica comes a moderalely large, moderately green bee. An Agapostemon nasutus. There are a lot of the these bright green bees out there...Not just in C.R. but throughout the Americas. Beautiful, and once you start paying attention, quite common. But are there any songs written about them? No. Poems? Zero. Green Bee Secret Societies?

Gliding in from Costa Rica comes a moderalely large, moderately green bee. An Agapostemon nasutus. There are a lot of the these bright green bees out there...Not just in C.R. but throughout the Americas. Beautiful, and once you start paying attention, quite common. But are there any songs written about them? No. Poems? Zero. Green Bee Secret Societies?

Dominican Republic, The only described all black Agapostemon in the Caribbean is from Cuba. (A. obscuratus). Collected in November of 2012. This is either A. obscuratus and a new record for Hispaniola or a new species.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

Here is the face of the specimen in the previous photo.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

White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. Collected and Photographed by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Today - Amazonite up close. So interesting to go from photographing the complexity of carbon based insect life to the complexity of minerals. One earth, all connected, such glory that cannot be recreated by men.

Amblycorypha oblongifolia, Oblong-winged katydid, Upper Marlboro, Maryland, July 2012