Images

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina

If you find a Trachusa in the East, and probably if you find it anywhere, you are a good keeper of the land. These species and T. ridingsii in particular have just disappeared from much of our landscape. Unlike many other bees they don't integrate well with urban, suburban, agricultural interfaces as currently wrought.

Cast skin, Maryland, collected by Richard Orr

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.

Unknown Deer Fly form near Bowie Maryland

Tarsalia persica, Persian Asymmetric bee, collected in Iran. 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.

Yo, Triepeolus people you are darn sharp looking bees. Here is T. donatus. Collected near State College in Pennsylvania by Laura Russo. Its host is going to be a Melissodes, in this case M.

Oh look, another Triepeolus. In this case it is T. helianthi from West Virginia from Kanawha County. Most likely this was collected by the fabulous Jane Whitaker, who covered most of the state in her collecting adventures. A fabulous contribution in an unexplored beescape. Photo by Sara Guerrieri.

Another nest parasite. Another Triepeolus. This time is is T. lunatus. A common species for a nest parasite in that it shows up regularly. The thought is that it is the nest parasite of Melissodes bimaculata which is perhaps the most abundant long-horned bee in the East, but probably is more generic in what Melissodes' nest it will invade.

A very rare bee. This one was on one of our lists of bees that have not been seen in the last 20 years until Sabrie Breland found one in southern Georgia in a old managed longleaf pine plantation. Once suspects that if as a society we were to protect and encourage more native plants and habitats more would be discovered.

Powerlines. Or more accurately transmission corridors. Now one of the few places that open country forb communities exist in many parts of the East. Often seen as a blight, they if not mown or sprayed to death, are places of refuge for many rare bees.

Here is a bee, Triepeolus remigatus, that is native to North America, but in much of the continent occurs only because of the crops we plant. In this case that crop is squash and pumpkins.

One of a few undescribed Triepeolus that Molly Rightmyer left undescribed after her revision of the group North of Mexico. She simply labeled it Sp. 101. This one was captured by Tim McMahon in Cochise County, Arizona.

A small Triopasites specimen from Cochise County, Arizona. Collected by Don Harvey on one of his expeditions to the area. This wee bee is a nest parasite of a group of similarly sized wee bees in the genus Anthophorula, mostly, but not entirely desert species. Lots to learn about this group. Photograph by Sydney Price.

The black onion fly...Tritoxa flexa. So fabulous in coloration. Picture by Wayne Boo, 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.