Images

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.

Zanysson - A crabronid wasp. Most of the stinging wasps are fairly badass in aspect, to use a technical term. This one certainly is worthy of a tattoo on someone's chest and was collected by Merle Shepherd from Spring Island along the coast of South Carolina. It is unclear which species this is, but perhaps someone will reveal that to us.

Zizia - Every garden deserves a set of plant folks from the carrot family. This is Golden Alexanders, it even comes with a bee that only uses its pollen to feed its young, Andrena ziziae. Flat-topped and little flowers, this creates the perfect feeding platform for little wasps and bees. Check out the rest of the family and include them in your gardens too.

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. Odontomyia cincta

This is picture 11 from a 12 picture invited series by Matt Buffington (matt.buffington@usda.gov) at the USDA Parastitic Hymentoptera group using specimens from the U.S. Natural History Museum Smithsonian. Matt uses a system very similar to ours to photograph and stack this super tiny wasp.

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.

While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti. Here is Svastra duplocincta collected in Pima County, Arizona...very likely on a cactus by either Tim McMahon or Don Harvey (my notes are not with me).

While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti. Here is Svastra duplocincta collected in Pima County, Arizona...very likely on a cactus by either Tim McMahon or Don Harvey (my notes are not with me).

Another set of pictures of a different specimen of Svastra duplocincta. Below is a repeat of the previous verbage for the species.While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a good place for Svastra obliqua. This is the male which was quite common around their pollinator garden at their visitor's center. Nice to have mini-wildlife as well as macro-wildlife taken care of at a refuge.Pictures by Hannah Sutton and Ashleigh Jacobs, Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

A lovely Deep South Svastra, S. petulca to be specific. A nice pollen shot. You can see the huge bushy pollen carrying hairs on its hind legs, designed to carry dry pollen unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees which mix their pollen with nectar.

A lovely Deep South Svastra, S. petulca to be specific. A nice pollen shot. You can see the huge bushy pollen carrying hairs on its hind legs, designed to carry dry pollen unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees which mix their pollen with nectar.

North Carolina, Wake County, collected by Adrian L. Carper

North Carolina, Wake County, collected by Adrian L. Carper

Sytyropha on white background. S. krigei to be specific from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This specimen was identified and photographed by Silas Bossert a bee researcher at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. They use similar systems to what we use, but prefer gray to white backgrounds, they are equally detailed.

Cast skin, Maryland, collected by Richard Orr

Unknown species of Treehopper collected in the Dominican Republic and suspended in Hand Sanitizer for this shot. The HS allows us to float the specimen how we like, but the high refraction index of HS means we loose a lot of surface detail due to loss of reflectivity. On the other hand it often adds a smoothing and saturation effect to the photo.

One of the very common Flower Chafers....They often fake me out when collecting bees on flowers as they fly amazingly well.

A rather dark and dangerous looking be from Chile. This is Trichothurgus aterimma what many specimens from Laurence Packer's collection up in New York University, Ontario. 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.

New species for the state of Maryland, this is Triepeolus concavus. As are all Triepeolus this one is a nest parasites. In this case, it's host is Svastra obliqua, an uncommon bee that loves large composites and is a good indication of high-quality habitat.