Images

Nomada texana, male, North Carolina, USFS Experiment Station

Nomia foxii. Check out the pearlescent bands on the abdomen. If you see something like that in North America it is going to be a bee in the genus Nomia. This is a western species. Captured in Hidalgo County, in NM by either Don Harvey or Tim McMahon our records are incomplete to the collector. Picture by Sydney Price.

From Kenya comes yet another Nomia with modifications to the basic bee format. You can see that like other Nomia this male has expanded leg segments, but the fabulous thing here are the dangling modified heart-shaped last segment of the antenna. Male bee antennae are modified quite frequently in the bee world, but this is one of the more extravagant.

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

A male Nomia from Thailand, note the corkscrewed antennae and the greatly expanded leg segments (presumably useful in mating at nest aggregations).

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

Another old and ancient fulgorid specimen from the Smithsonian. If you peer upclose you can see that it is a wall of tiny dust and dirt specs a sign of a collection that at one point was not so collected as it is at the Natural History museum. The hole below the eye was likely made by a friendly dermestid larvae. Still useful and still spectacular.

Frederick County Maryland, Collected by Richard Orr

Euglossa....the orchid bees, swanky glintlings of the New World tropical forests. The males gather fragrances produced by orchids who are then pollinated by the infatuations of these males.

Another widespread mason bee from the West...this one was found in Yellowstone National Park as part of a study of alpine bee populations there. Osmia albolateralis is its name...sadly, like most bees it lacks a common name. Photographed by Elizabeth Garcia.

One of the common spring Osmia, this specimen came from bowl traps right at the lab...unlike other specimens it was processed right away and the luminescence of the eyes of this particular specimen retained at least some of the flavor of what they look like when alive.Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flas

Osmia, as members of the family Megachilidae often use their jaws in the formation of nests ... collecting plant material or mud and such uses create some wicked cool structures, here are the big jaws of an Osmia from Kyrgystan. This specimen was taken upside down and then inverted to get a bit more dramatic lighting on the lower part of the face.

A tiny tiny bee, a specialist on Potentilla or Cinquefoil plants in North America. This one came from a colony I discovered in a dirt patch right in the front lawn of our laboratory. These sorts of bare dirt / clay / sand areas are often great bee nesting sites.

Undescribed Panurginus Species from Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Undescribed Panurginus Species from Badlands National Park

One of the graciously metallic species of the subgenus Paracmaeodera found on flowers and bowl traps in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Photo by Anders Croft.

Paracolletes species, On and Off Bee, specimen collected in AustraliaThis species is unusually sexually dimorphic in color. The males are quite bright, as can be seen here, the females are what might be called the "null hypothesis" for bee coloration "“ brownish grey on the head and thorax with a black abdomen with white transverse hair bands.

A little flower fly from the Badlands of South Dakota, this one was part of a study led by Diane Larson looking at the web of pollinators on some of the rare plant communities found in the gumbo soils of Badlands National Park. An interesting species found in North America, Europe, and Africa.

Why do you insist, Pilgrim, on planting your garden with geraniums, tea roses, and begonias? You could be planting your garden to Woodlands sunflowers and then you would have the opportunity to help out the uncommon and undoubtedly declining Paranthidium jugatorium.