Images

East Coast, West Coast, this parasitic species, Coelioxys octodentata occurs throughout the United States, almost completely filling the country with records and stopping at the border for some reason. How closely related are the specimens on the Pacific edge versus the Atlantic? Unknown, but for now they are just one species. Red legs are classic C.

The most common Coelioxys in the East. C. sayi is a nest parasite, slipping into the nests of leaf cutters like Megachile mendica and kin and dropping an egg into the wall of their nests. In the female, like this one, the edge of the clypeus is slightly indented (hard to see). Now you know.

Helicoverpa zea - Corn Earworm - According to Wikipedia its the second most economically damaging insect pest in North America, chewing on a wide variety of crop plants. This most certainly is true, but it also not a bad looking animal when viewed close up.

The dogwood of the people. Cornus florida. Planted widely. Formerly forming a subcanopy of white in the spring in much of the eastern forests. Then, the Dogwood Anthracnose comes and most of those interior woodland dogwood are now gone and dogwood is largely confined to edges of woodlands or plantings in the open. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Ah, the dancing curves of Corydalis flavula. A small part of the glory of spring in the Mid-Atlantic states. Picture and specimen from Helen Lowe Metzman from Howard County, Maryland.

GENITALIA! In this case the beautiful genitalia of Cosmorrhyncha one of the bitty moths in the family Tortricidae. Thanks to John W. Brown for supplying the slide. See previous picture for more details. For some reason this makes me think of biker gang insignia....

Cotesia congregata - a little parasite of caterpillars. This one is from Karen Kester's lab in Richmond where she and her gradstudents raise them and discover things about the host (Sphinx moths I believe) parasite relationship. Photo by Greta Forbes.

Cotesia congregata - a little parasite of caterpillars. This one is from Karen Kester's lab in Richmond where she and her gradstudents raise them and discover things about the host (Sphinx moths I believe) parasite relationship. Photo by Greta Forbes.

An unknown Crab Spider or perhaps running crab spider, identification help would be great, I hope to post another shot of the back at some point. Beltsville, Maryland

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

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Spotted lady beetle,Coleomegilla maculata, a relatively common native species of lady beetle, sadly most of the most common lady beetles are not native these days. This one, interestingly, feeds an awful lot on pollen from flowers, and therefore I often catch it when collecting bees.

Colletes aestivalis. Rare? or Not Rare? This is a Heuchera specialist. Heuchera is planted everywhere, why is the species not seen and seen by some as a potential species of concern. A few things pilgrim.

Colletes brevocornis, and uncommonly collected species, one that I associate with dry open areas, it is perhaps a specialist on Venus looking glass in the campanulae family. Difficult to say, since so few have been collected but that is our best guess at this time.

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.

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