Images

A nest parasite of Melissodes, this is a relatively common species of an uncommon genus. Collected by Sabrie Breland in South Georgia in a lovely remnant of longleaf pine. Picture by Brooke Alexander.

Powerlines. Or more accurately transmission corridors. Now one of the few places that open country forb communities exist in many parts of the East. Often seen as a blight, they if not mown or sprayed to death, are places of refuge for many rare bees.

Here is a bee, Triepeolus remigatus, that is native to North America, but in much of the continent occurs only because of the crops we plant. In this case that crop is squash and pumpkins.

An unknown species of Triepeolus from the southern most part of Georgia. Not sure what species as it doesn't seem to key out very well to any particular species. Will have to send off to Molly Gee for ID. Collected by Dave Gruenewald who is studying the bees in southern pine plantations.

The black onion fly...Tritoxa flexa. So fabulous in coloration. Picture by Wayne Boo, Photoshopping by Dejen Mengis. 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.

Tiny feather from the head of a Whooping Crane. (Grus americana). Part of the captive flock at Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

A tiny little bee species from Australia pinned with a tiny little pin called a minutum to a foam block...from the Packer Lab's collection.

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.

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.

Xylocopa cubaecola, female, on the base of Guantanamo Bay, GTMO, Cuba, endemic Cuban Carpenter Bee

Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

A lovely yellow yellow yellow Carpenter Bee from India. The brown wings and yellow hairs show extremely good taste. From the Packer Lab 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.

A lovely yellow yellow yellow Carpenter Bee from India. The brown wings and yellow hairs show extremely good taste. From the Packer Lab 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.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a good place for Svastra obliqua. This is the male which was quite common around their pollinator garden at their visitor's center. Nice to have mini-wildlife as well as macro-wildlife taken care of at a refuge.Pictures by Hannah Sutton and Ashleigh Jacobs, Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

North Carolina, Wake County, collected by Adrian L. Carper

ns, 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 the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.

Unknown Deer Fly form near Bowie Maryland

Unknown Deer Fly form near Bowie Maryland

Tachinid Fly from the Dominican Republic floating in hand sanitizer filled quartz cuvette, in which a thin film of blue food coloring was added to a black piece of plastic and inserted at the bottom of the cuvette and allowed to migrate upwards.

Here is a lovely carpenter bee from the southeastern part of the U.S., a bit smaller than X. viginica and as far as I know nests in twigs rather and does no damage to timbers (not that X. virginica does much in the way of real structural damage).

Xylocopa mordax, female, Dominican Republic, March 2012