Images

One of the first woodland plants flowering in the spring....am looking forward to the plants waking up this year and the cycle starting anew. Specimen and photography by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Dominican Republic,floating in hand sanitizer in a cuvette Heteropteran, species unknown

A bee with a fat leg, or at least a wide one. Which is the most distinguising feature of this bee that sadly looks like a whole bunch of other Lasioglossum species. The name? = ...Lasioglossum callidum. i Photograph by Brooke Alexander.

Such a lovely blue and relatively unusual in the Genus Lasioglossum. At least in the East there is no other Lasioglossum so extensively and uniformly blue. So blue that it is often mistaken for an Osmia. This species is associated with woodlands, feeding on the vernal flora of the woods and nearby fields and nesting in rotten wood.

More L. coreiaceum pictures...these are from a specimen taken as part of global climate change study at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.Photograph by Brooke Alexander.

Lasioglossum creberrimum, Big Thicket National Preserve, Texas

Brianne Du Clos, collected this common Lasioglossum in Maine...probably in or near a blueberry field. Unlike most of our specimens you can see the pollen all over this specimen. Photograph by Dejen Mengis.

Brianne Du Clos, collected this common Lasioglossum in Maine...probably in or near a blueberry field. Unlike most of our specimens you can see the pollen all over this specimen. Photograph by Dejen Mengis.

Lasioglossum egregium, nicely patterned bands of hair on its hinders, this is a common bee in the West. This particular one is from Bryce Canyon National Park. More to see in Bryce than a bunch of rocks, I think. Photograph by Brooke Alexander.

Lasioglossum eleutherense, female, Florida, National Park Service, Biscayne National Park

Cuba, GTMO, Guantanamo Bay

Cuba, GTMO, Guantanamo Bay

Well, someone has to take pictures of all these small metallic Lasioglossums. This is L. flaveriae. A Deep South species. I associate it with southern, piney flatlands, but it is based on partial understandings. Bees are so tiny and we look under Mother Nature's hood in so few places.

Well, someone has to take pictures of all these small metallic Lasioglossums. This is L. flaveriae. A Deep South species. I associate it with southern, piney flatlands, but it is based on partial understandings. Bees are so tiny and we look under Mother Nature's hood in so few places.

One of the many tricky to identify Dialictus bee species, this from the lovely Cumberland Island National Seashore, Cumberland Island having many interesting species and worthy of much more exploration. Photo taken by Kamren Jefferson

From Mount Washington in New Hampshire. A new species for New England this species has a boreal distribution and probably is a hold out from colder days, eking out a living in the White Mountains until global climate change turns it into a jungle.

Rare. This small little Lasioglossum sequoiae is all black. This particular specimen was collected in the San Juan Islands of Washington in the National Historic Park and identified by the fabulous Jason Gibbs. This represents a major range extension for all the previous specimens we are aware of are known from California.

Here is a little tiny nest parasite, Lasioglossum simplex, that parasitizes one of its sister taxa (likely L. trigeminum). While it retains the overall look and feel of its pollen carrying upright relatives, it has no pollen carrying hairs and its mandibles lack the tooth at the end and instead are simple sabres...

A rather lovely Lasioglossum from Bryce Canyon National Park (L. sisymbrii) als black and white stripes. Common in the West...leaking a bit into the plains, but not much.

Lasioglossum sopinci, male

more catching up...Lasioglossum synthridis from Utah. Brooke Alexander took this shot.