Images

Some of the Stelis groups of bees are very colorful. This is true of S. louisae....a nest parasite of Megachile campanulae and clan. This male was collected on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the mostly marsh county of Dorchester. Photograph by Claire Mudd.

Three pictures of Stelis nasuta from the Grecian Islands, collected by Jelle Devalez who has the honor of studying and interpreting for us all the bee faunaof these islands. How nice for us all. The species lays its eggs in the nest of the Osmia species that we have illustrated previously. Just doing its job, nothing personal.

a new species record for Maryland collected by Richard Orr in the Catoctin Mountains. We will be looking into it over the next few weeks.

Woof. Not great pictures of a bit of beat up bee, but it is a rare bee and I think the only one I have ever gotten. In this case these came from Shelby Wilson who did surveys of bees on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. A very cool place. Very canadian in bee aspect.

Stelis subemarginata - An uncommon nest parasite of the genus Osmia. This one from Maine, where lots of Osmia hang out. Photo by Brooke Alexander.

Australia warning. This extremely fast flying sand nesting bee is only found in Australia, in fact, the genus is only found in Australia, and...the family Stenotritidae (27 species) is only found in Australia. The smallest of the 7 families of bees known to mankind. Collected by the peripatetic uber bee taxonomist Laurence Packer.

Experiment: This specimen has previously been photographed and uploaded to our account. The difference is that I have cleaned the specimen by rehydrating it overnight floating on foam in a tupper ware container of water and then vigorously washing it in hot soapy water by dunking the specimen on the pin into another plastic container and shaking.

Australia warning. This extremely fast flying sand nesting bee is only found in Australia, in fact, the genus is only found in Australia, and...the family Stenotritidae (27 species) is only found in Australia. The smallest of the 7 families of bees known to mankind. Collected by the peripatetic uber bee taxonomist Laurence Packer.

Melapona species (likely Melipona eburnean, but this needs to be verified by sam) , La Legítima, specimen collected by German Perilla in PeruHoney is not the singular creation of Honey Bees, but other, even older lines of bees have been creating honey to get through hard times for tens of millions of years.

A very very variable in color (polymorphic) species in the stinkbug family from South America. I have a couple of other examples, but there seems to be no limit to the color variations this species has. How lovely and mysterious. Not sure what the research is on this thing, but it must be an interesting story.

A fluorescent green Stratiomyid from the edges of the salt marshes of Somerset County in Maryland. One product of the Monie Bay BioBlitz a few days ago. So very green.

One of the southern Svastra species. Big Bee, uncommon and probably restricted to areas of relatively intact native flora, which are getting to be harder and harder to find.

One of the southern Svastra species. Big Bee, uncommon and probably restricted to areas of relatively intact native flora, which are getting to be harder and harder to find.

Another southern Svastra species, a relatively uncommon species, but on that regularly shows up in healthy, plant rich regions. As with most of the Svastra species, not much is known about its predilections...but likely it is using large late summer composites of some sort. A fair amount of goo on this girl, lots of photoshopping out of dirt.

Another southern Svastra species, a relatively uncommon species, but on that regularly shows up in healthy, plant rich regions. As with most of the Svastra species, not much is known about its predilections...but likely it is using large late summer composites of some sort. A fair amount of goo on this girl, lots of photoshopping out of dirt.

Another southern Svastra species, a relatively uncommon species, but on that regularly shows up in healthy, plant rich regions. As with most of the Svastra species, not much is known about its predilections...but likely it is using large late summer composites of some sort. A fair amount of goo on this girl, lots of photoshopping out of dirt.

Another Heather Campbell collected bee from the Sandhills, this one a nest parasite, likely on something in the genus Lasioglossum, a very small bee...Check out the WIPs in the wing (Wing Interference Patterns) quite lovely ....

More Sphecodes from the Adirondack Mountains of New York. There are many species of Sphecodes. They look remarkably the same. Females, like this one, inevitably have red butts and the rest about small sculptural differences.

An unknown species of Sphecodes collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County. Interesting to ask why Sphecodes often have bring red abdomens when bees theoretically can't see red. Photographed by Brooke Alexander

An odd story of invasion. This is a Sphecodes, we have posted a series of them recently on Flickr. They are nest parasites. They gather no pollen themselves. There are many species...the odd thing is that I found this on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. The only native bees on the island (discounting some maybe native bees) are masked bee from the genus Hylaeus.

Sphecodes tainoi captured in agriculture areas of Puerto Rico by Sara Prado. This is a new island record, previously there were no known records for Sphecodes for the island.Notice the lovely WIPs (Wing Interference Patterns)