Images

Piranga olivacea - Sadly this particular bird collided with a building in downtown Washington D.C. and the Lights Out DC / City Wildlife found it on an early spring morning. This foot, while dirty, is just filled with lovely graceful curves and reptilian scutes. Photograph by Sue Boo.

Seeds and various parts of Senna hebecarpa, American Senna. The details of plants blooms and other body parts have their own beauty. Pictures and specimens by Helen Lowe Metzman, Howard County, MD.

Thalestria spinosa..the only member of its genus and a nest parasite of the genus Oxaea. Note that both genera have glints of metallic integument just to make them more attractive to humans.

Thalestria spinosa..the only member of its genus and a nest parasite of the genus Oxaea. Note that both genera have glints of metallic integument just to make them more attractive to humans.

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus. A common co-inhabitant with human nests. In this case a Wren made a nest in a tub of rags we had outside under a shed roof. We watched it for a while, but then found the tub also had a Black Rat Snake and the nest was mysteriously abandoned.

Another Thyreus...this one white and of unknown species and from Ethiopia. You can see from frazzled ends of the wings this female was relatively old. Like all Thyreus it breaks open the nests of Amegilla and perhaps other related species such as Anthophora.

Another Thyreus...this one white and of unknown species and from Ethiopia. You can see from frazzled ends of the wings this female was relatively old. Like all Thyreus it breaks open the nests of Amegilla and perhaps other related species such as Anthophora.

thanks to Cathy Stragar and Bill Hubick for this Identification this cicada was lounging around my moth light in the coastal plain of Maryland a bit before 5 a.m. a few days ago. Thanks.

Oh look, a Tiger Beetle. This was collected on Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge in Maryland along the beach where I was hunting bees on the leadplant that grows wherever sandy shores bloom. I believe this to me Cicindela hirticollis but can be disabused of that notion by a tiger expert.

The Cranefly Orchid - Pollinated by night flying moths who come for a snack and instead get an orchid pollinia (sack of pollen) glued to their eye. Tricky. A relatively common orchid and one that seems ok with relatively recent forests emerging from some man made disturbance.

Ah, how lovely small things can be. Here is a Torymus species (thanks Matt Buffington for the looky id while you were in the lab). Often parasitizing gall forming wasps, you can see from its ovipositer that something interesting is happening out there in nature land.

Who doestn't love a nicely striped bee? Truchusa dorsalis on display here with stripes made on Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and later picked up by the Virginia Heritage Group in their surveys. This is a new state record, somewhat bridging records in the Pine Barrens of NJ and those of the North Carolina.

Who doestn't love a nicely striped bee? Truchusa dorsalis on display here with stripes made on Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia and later picked up by the Virginia Heritage Group in their surveys. This is a new state record, somewhat bridging records in the Pine Barrens of NJ and those of the North 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.

Sexy Cerambycid beetles from Kruger National Park Genus: Tragocephala. Check how the eye wraps around the antennae and peeks out atop the head. Makes those plain old round vertebrate eyes seem limiting. Photograph by Anders Croft.

Maryland, Harford County, Lake levi, shed skin of dragonfly, collected by Richard Orr

Tylopelta gibbera, a wee, brown, spec-like, treehopper. This species runs from Central America north where it quietly sips sap from the tick-trefoil plant group.

Tylopelta gibbera, a wee, brown, spec-like, treehopper. This species runs from Central America north where it quietly sips sap from the tick-trefoil plant group.

One of the most common bees in the East...if only we could figure out how to identify it more easily. Here we have Lasioglossum trigeminum. Fits right in with A. admirandum, A. versatum, and A. callidum and I often struggle with dark second thoughts about the specimens Id, because of all the overlap.

A valentine from the USGS Bee Lab to all the people who have helped us develop our craft over the years. For all the specimens and opportunities you have given us.

Varroa destructor, the leading cause of beekeeper angst. This relatively large mite parasitizes honeybees from adults to larvae. Crab-like aren't they? Specimen provided by Krisztina Christmon from the University of Maryland where she studies the life history of these tricky beings. Oh, that is the tip of an insect pin you see in the picture.