Images

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.

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Galleria mellonella - The waxworm. The rather muscular and chiseled form of an introduced pest of bees nests. In this case this bad boy was found in a bumble bee nest that was built in a chickadee nest that the bumble bee queen had kicked out of the nestbox in suburban Maryland. So it goes in nature. Picture by Wayne Boo. Waxworm wrangling by Desiree Narango.

Xanthorhiza simplicissima, Yellowroot. A long tradition in eastern North American of using this shrubby Ranunculus family plant for dyeing and medicine. Plant and specimen from Helen Lowe Metzman.

Prickly Ash - Xanthoxylum americanum. Photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

A common Carpenter Bee in Kruger National Park where they hang out in blooming trees (particularly legumes) once the trees start blooming with the austral spring rains. Looks a bit like the road stripers got a hold of her. Xylcopa caffra. Identified by Jonathan Mawdsley. Photo by Kelly Graninger.

Another bee from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is Xylocopa caffra...the male. Note how it is all yellow? Well the female is almost all black with some blocks of yellow on the abdomen. In a number of Carpenter bees on a number of continents this pattern repeats...while in other Carpenter bees the male and female are both dark.

A lovely dark Xylocopa from Kyrgyzstan with shimmering dark iridescence of wing and abdomen. 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.

100 years old and still blue .... ish. Google Xylocopa caerulea to see some knockout recent specimens. Capture in Singapore long ago. Interesting to think what legacy you will have in a 100 years...? Will people still use and find relevant something you did/found/created 100 years from now? Picture taken by Anders Croft.

100 years old and still blue .... ish. Google Xylocopa caerulea to see some knockout recent specimens. Capture in Singapore long ago. Interesting to think what legacy you will have in a 100 years...? Will people still use and find relevant something you did/found/created 100 years from now? Picture taken by Anders Croft.

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

A lovely reddish haired carpenter bee from Kruger National Park. Picture by Erick Hernandez.

Hermaphrodite! (aka a gynandromorph) This Agapostemon texanus or angelicus (species can't be determined here) is part male and part female. This happens in I think all animals and I have seen about 5 of these after looking at about 400,000 bee specimens. This one was brought in by Tim McMahon after he collected it in Arizona.

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.

This Agapostemon species is one of the most common native bees in the East. In almost any field there can be hundreds if not thousands of these bees visiting a wide variety of blooming plants.

Agapostemon splendens, female, Florida, October 2011, Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve

Ramps. Allium tricoccum. Things in the onion group can be good pollen sources for bees. Ramps are no exception. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

A pollinator of wild relatives of tomatoes, this species will alight upon and then vibrate tomato flowers using its wing muscles. These plants have cleverly hidden their pollen in tubular anthers that are primarily released when buzzed by bees at a certain frequency.

India = An unknown species of Amegila collected by Suzanne Batra.

Ammobates muticus, Mediterranean Bee Stalker, specimen collected by E.L. Merim in Palermo, ItalyAnother red-abdomened cuckoo bee; why is it that so many cuckoo bees are more brightly colored than their hosts?