Images

Colletes pahceliae - As you might suspect it is a lover of the plant phaceliae. Many of the Colletes are tight plant specialists. Only feeding their babies the pollen from one group of plants. With that lifestyle comes your status becomes linked to the the status of those plants. The status of those native plants are a mirror of how we treat our environments.

Photo by Anders Croft 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, USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into th

Colletes thoracicus. One of the cellophane bees. Aggregates in large numbers in loose soil or cliff faces. Photographer is Greta Forbes.

For whatever reason we haven't taken any very good pictures of this here bee, Colletes thoracicus. This species is one of two that form huge aggregations in loose or sandy soils in the Eastern U.S. Very cool and for some reason lacking any Bee Nest Parasites (Epeolus) that haunt other Colletes.

Rarity here. This is species was described in the 1950s, named after the town it was collected near and only a handful of specimens have ever been collected that I am aware of. In fact it is so rare that it was on our list of "missing" species, published in 2011.

Note the short split tongue, characteristic of Colletes. Badlands National Park

Colletes nudus, male, Florida Duval County 2007

Colletes thysanellae, female

Male Colletes brimleyi

South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina

A relatively uncommon Cellophane Bee from South Georgia in old Long-leaf Pine habitat. Not much is known about this species, most of the records are from the Southeast with a few suspicious ones up north. Collected by the bee fabulous Sabrie Breland. I accidentally shredded this ones wings when cleaning it.

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.

From Suffolk, County New York near the tip of Long Island in September, This species just pops up in mid to late summer at low levels in the East. You should be so lucky to have some in the native habitat you encouraged on your property. (You did do that didn't you?). Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

Here are 4 views of Colletes phaceliae. Hannah Sutton took these using 4 different back grounds, just to play with something other than a Black background. With these more complicated backgrounds I have a harder time removing the pin in photoshop....perhaps people can give me some feedback on how to make that more seemless.

Colletes phaceliae - Western bee, but this one caught at the edge of its range, where it was hanging out in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Photo by Erick Hernandez and Kelly Graninger.

Appropriately coming from the latin noun for emerald, comes this large lovely from western Australia.

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Christmas lights jumping spider from the Dominican Republic, species unknown, but surprisingly marked with fluorescent scales

Tenebrionidae, found at night chewing on a small patch of shelf fungi on a stump in Upper Marlboro, Maryland