Images

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.

One of a few undescribed Triepeolus that Molly Rightmyer left undescribed after her revision of the group North of Mexico. She simply labeled it Sp. 101. This one was captured by Tim McMahon in Cochise County, Arizona.

A small Triopasites specimen from Cochise County, Arizona. Collected by Don Harvey on one of his expeditions to the area. This wee bee is a nest parasite of a group of similarly sized wee bees in the genus Anthophorula, mostly, but not entirely desert species. Lots to learn about this group. Photograph by Sydney Price.

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.

Unknown microhymenoptera, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

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.

Japanase Burrowing Cricket, Velarifictorus micado, Beltsville, Maryland, July 2012, A reporter from Wired Magazine commented that this specimen was remarkably similar to Rodin's "The Thinker"

Velvet Ant or Cow Killer, Mutillidae unknown species from Badlands National Park. So charistmatic. 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.

Sphecodes davisii - Collected in the Adirondack Mountains as part of an expedition to the region in 2014. No Sphecodes gathers pollen. All Sphecodes are nest parasites. Laying their eggs in the nests of other species. Most are nest parasites of species in their family of Halictidae...but sometimes they dabble in other species.

Well, Sphecodes is a tough group to identify and we shouldn't have photographed it without getting a species ID, but ...it is a lovely to look at bee. Sierra Williams took the picture.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

Wouldn't you want a building that looked like this...While parsing through the residues from the US Forest Service's Bent Creek Experimental Forest bee traps, Dejen Mengis found this lovely annual cicada (species unknown). The combination of residual water and the natural interference patterns of the wings created these lovely stained glass effects.

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, nest parasite of other bee species

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, nest parasite of other bee species

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

The Good Carpenter Bee. This is the other species of carpenter bee that occurs in the Eastern U.S. Xylocopa micans. For some reason it thumbs its labrum at dry wood in buildings, decks, and fences (unlike its cousin X. virginica).

The Good Carpenter Bee. This is the other species of carpenter bee that occurs in the Eastern U.S. Xylocopa micans. For some reason it thumbs its labrum at dry wood in buildings, decks, and fences (unlike its cousin X. virginica).

Xylocopa mordax, Female, face, Dominican Republic, Carpenter Bee

Ahhhhhh, the beauty of the wings of Carpenter Bees, this lovely specimen from Thailand, found lounging around the Packer Lab, Trivia = Carpenter Bees lay the world's largest insect eggs.

Here is a carpenter bee species from Australia that has a very different look and feel from our North American species. Very likely in a different subfamily but taxonomically and morphologically there must be great similarities to keep them within the same genus.

Giant Flying Eye - The male of Xylocopa virginica or Virginia Carpenter Bee. Any bee with this much "eye" is clearly doing something different visually. In this case the males are guarding nesting territories and the associated females and their young and defending them from other males.