Images

A rare Masked Bee. This is Hylaues sparsus. It shows up here and there, hard to say where its niche is in the world. No one catches many of them. Can't really pin a habitat on them or a focal plant that they have their favorite pollen.

Here is a series of 6 shots of Hylaeus verticalis, 3 male, 3 female. A northern and mountain bee throughout North America. One of a bunch of different Masked Bees that lurk around the continent. Photos by Sue Boo and Brooke Alexander.

Hoplisoides xerophilus, Cuba, GTMO Naval Base

Dark Bee. Some bees are all black, black hairs, black integument (skin), little reflection. This makes for somewhat eerie photography, a gothic presentation of a species that does not care what we think. Northern and mountain in distribution across both sides of the continent. This one from way up in Yosemite National Park in California.

More shots of a shiny bright blue/purple Hoplitis fulgida. This one from Yosemite National Park, collected by Claire Kremen's group. This one is a female.

More shots of a shiny bright blue/purple Hoplitis fulgida. This one from Yosemite National Park, collected by Claire Kremen's group. This one is a female, you can see its pollen carrying hairs under its abdomen.

Hoplitis fulgida, a female from Grand Tetons National Park, collected as part of a study of climate change. Most species in this genus are the normal black colored bee things, but a few, like this one are, as the Latin in name implies, glittering jewels.

Hoplitis pilosifrons. Oft overlooked. This species is relatively common occurring in almost any substantive collection of bees from a region or location anywhere East of the Rockies. It has the bad habit of being bland in its characters and often leads to misidentifications.

A small, hole nesting bee, collected in Charles County Maryland, Hoplitis simplex is uncommonly found and is a specialist on the plant genus Phacelia. Bee specialists such as this little Hoplitis are fundamentally linked to the world's plant biodiversity...not Phacelia...no H. simplex. Photograph by Hannah Sutton.

A large Hoplitis, that occurs throughout most of North America East of the Rockies. Occurs in low numbers at most locations, in the Mid-Atlantic is is a June bee and associated with what would appear to be mostly Woody blooming plants. Something to consider in your planting pollinator plans... don't forget the blooming shrubs and small trees.

Sometimes male bees depart from the standard antennae shapes for some sort of new performance specs. No body seems to be studying why this might be, but there is substantive research on how incredible antennae can be at detecting just a few molecules.

Aegean islands...have this lovely bee Jelle Devalez (the finder of this bee) writes: "Hoplitis tigrina: one of the largest species of Hoplitis usually found on large purple thistles." And so we must love purple thistles.

Larrini, Unknown species, Dorchester County, April 2012, MarylandLiris argentatus?

6 views of Lasioglossum species which from the sandy areas of Humboldt County, in Redwoods National Park. An Unknown but interesting species, it will have to wait for someone to come along who knows more that we do. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

Denny Johnson from Eau Claire County in Wisconsin provided this specimen. Another Lasioglossum and one that was until recently cleared up by Jason Gibbs involved in thousands of misidentifications...many by myself.

A tricky to identify small sweat bee. Many are identified and there are decades of incorrect keys, murky specimen selection in collections, and even now that Jason Gibbs has provided good clear descriptions they still are so close to other species that ID is not trivial.

This is one of the common European sweat bees, collected in France by Sarah Kocher. The subject of a number of studies that investigates the relationship between geographic location and this bee's level of eusociality (coloniality).

Lasioglossum albipes, Polysocial Hairy-tongued Bee, specimen collected in FranceBecause of the very well known biology of Honey Bees some may believe that all bees have complex social lives. However, very few of the more than 20,000 species of bees discovered actually has a complex social life.

Lasioglossum albipes, Polysocial Hairy-tongued Bee, specimen collected in FranceBecause of the very well known biology of Honey Bees some may believe that all bees have complex social lives. However, very few of the more than 20,000 species of bees discovered actually has a complex social life.

Even more Lasioglossum specimens, this one Lasioglossum albohirum, also from the fantastic be world of Fossil Butte National Monument in Wyoming. Photographed by Brooke Alexander. 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.

Lasioglossum brunneiventre. Small, long head, found in the Mojave National Preserve in studies of sandy areas in National Parks. Photographs by Brooke Alexander.