Images

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.

Unknown species of Treehopper collected in the Dominican Republic and suspended in Hand Sanitizer for this shot. The HS allows us to float the specimen how we like, but the high refraction index of HS means we loose a lot of surface detail due to loss of reflectivity. On the other hand it often adds a smoothing and saturation effect to the photo.

One of the very common Flower Chafers....They often fake me out when collecting bees on flowers as they fly amazingly well.

A rather dark and dangerous looking be from Chile. This is Trichothurgus aterimma what many specimens from Laurence Packer's collection up in New York University, Ontario. 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.

New species for the state of Maryland, this is Triepeolus concavus. As are all Triepeolus this one is a nest parasites. In this case, it's host is Svastra obliqua, an uncommon bee that loves large composites and is a good indication of high-quality habitat.

Triepeolus distinctus. This is the female of the male of the species that was posted a couple of weeks ago. Equally lovely. Both were found in an untended sand pit near my house. The key is untended as most sand pits not are filled with junk and the capped with clay and then planted with cool-season grasses and maybe some trees. The worst thing you could do.

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

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.

A small stilt bug in its thin glory from the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens. Collected by Chelcey Nordstrom and photographed by Sydney Price.

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 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. Odontomyia cincta

This is picture 11 from a 12 picture invited series by Matt Buffington (matt.buffington@usda.gov) at the USDA Parastitic Hymentoptera group using specimens from the U.S. Natural History Museum Smithsonian. Matt uses a system very similar to ours to photograph and stack this super tiny wasp.

Yep, a starling egg...partially hidden by the clay holding it.

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.

While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti. Here is Svastra duplocincta collected in Pima County, Arizona...very likely on a cactus by either Tim McMahon or Don Harvey (my notes are not with me).

While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti. Here is Svastra duplocincta collected in Pima County, Arizona...very likely on a cactus by either Tim McMahon or Don Harvey (my notes are not with me).

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.

Spectacular in its glittering blue hairs, this humpbacked bee is another nest parasite, in this case it lays its eggs in the nests of Blue-banded bees (Amegilla). This particular baby was collected in the Philippines by C.F. Baker in the early part of the last century.

Thanks to Bill Hubic and Cathy Stragar for this ID!. Thanks. sam 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.