Images

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.

The bee genus Colletes...also known as Cellophane Bees because of their habitat of lining their cells with a plastic like substance...is full of relatively uncommon bees that specialist on a the pollen of a small number of plants or groups of plants. This may be the case with C. phaceliae given its name...but I am not clear.

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 thoracicus. One of the cellophane bees. Aggregates in large numbers in loose soil or cliff faces. Photographer is Greta Forbes.

Dalmannia pacifica Fly, Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming. In hand sanitizer in a cuvette Ben added a piece of black construction paper on the bottom of the cuvette to decrease the reflectance of the cuvette wall, this worked, but the paper bled purple/blue..for an interesting effect.

Dasymutilla gloriosa. Thistledown Velvet Ant. Elizabeth Garcia who took this picture claimed this one creeped her out. ... and she sees a lot of wasps and bees. Not an ant, but a wasp. This it the wingeless female collected by Tim McMahon in Cochise County in Arizona. Desert.

Another unknown Chrysops species from Maryland, see assocaited back shot for possible id, collected from the resulting cloud of flies after a run through Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Maryland

Back to the Badlands of South Dakota. Here we get Diadasia....something that only shows up once you hit some of the isolated prairies in the MidWest until when you got to much of the West...they are everywhere. A common species, this one was found in a number of locations in the Badlands.

Small Fuzzy Diadaasia diminuta. This little fur ball, is a globe mallow specialist. I am too tired after trying to beat back invasives all day in the yard to say any more. A lovely day though all the bees finally are emerging, including my first queen bumbles. The little poofs are from Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

I think many people think of cacti as icons, something made for us to look at, but since we rarely use cacti for anything and because their fleshy shapes and lifestyles are so different we think of them more as lampposts than integrated into our landscapes as much as the grasses, forbs, and trees. But without cacti entire worlds would disappear.

Dianthidium curvatum, how cool is this bee? Specimens collected here from Sabrie Breland in Baker County in Georgia, we should all live in such a bee rich location. 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.

An uncommon dark Dianthidium from Florida. This one captured on the Atlantic coast in Canaveral National Seashore, Photographed by Brooke AlexanderCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

An uncommon dark Dianthidium from Florida. This one captured on the Atlantic coast in Canaveral National Seashore, Photographed by Brooke AlexanderCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

Isn't this a boss looking bee? This is Dianthidium singulare. One of the largest Dianthidiums around. Check out the winged plates near the collar of the bee and the shield like tegula that covers the front wing's insertion point into the body. Such a dramatic species.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

Dianthidium simile, female, Michigan, July 2011, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Dutchman's Breeches. Just another wild variant in the dance of plant with bee. Wouldn't you like to see an evolutionary time lapse of the development of this flower as it couples in just the right way with bumblebees; one rewarded with an exchange of gametes and the other with food for it young, whilst leaving the other pollinators to lean against the gym wall.

Dutchman's Breeches. Just another wild variant in the dance of plant with bee. Wouldn't you like to see an evolutionary time lapse of the development of this flower as it couples in just the right way with bumblebees; one rewarded with an exchange of gametes and the other with food for it young, whilst leaving the other pollinators to lean against the gym wall.

Dieunomia heteropoda, female, Anne Arundel County, Maryland

Rarity here. This is species was described in the 1950s, named after the town it was collected near and only a handful of specimens have ever been collected that I am aware of. In fact it is so rare that it was on our list of "missing" species, published in 2011.