Status and Trends Program

Laphria posticata. A lot going on here, at least for me, first there is a wonderful aesthetic contrast between the mounds of black clay and the robber fly; the crispness of the angled wings and the just imperfectness of the bilateral symmetry combined with the mirroring of the yellow hairs on the thorax in opposition to those of the abdomen. There is also a sadness to

A Light exists in SpringNot present on the YearAt any other period --When March is scarcely hereA Color stands abroadOn Solitary FieldsThat Science cannot overtakeBut Human Nature feels.It waits upon the Lawn,It shows the furthest TreeUpon the furthest Slope you knowIt almost speaks to you.Then as Horizons stepOr Noons report awayWithout the Formula of soundIt passes and

Unknown Parasitic Wasp, Cecil County, Maryland, Collected by Tim McMahon. Photographed by Wayne Boo.Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Rhynchomitra microrhina, the lovely and colorful front end of the this lovely and colorful long-nosed Dictyopharid planthopper. It appears to feed on grasses and joins the huge world of native plant driven biodiversity. Can you buy a Rhynchomitramicrorhina at the big box store? No, of course not, you must foster wild and luscious grasscapes and stop mowing the grass

Melissodes dentiventris, male, an uncommon denizen of dry sandy areas, specializing on pollination of composites...particularly maryland goldenaster. Collected in Anne Arundel County Maryland

Coelioxys alternata, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, collected by Stephanie Wilson at the Morris Arboretum

A very small soldier beetle. This beetle is from the genus Malthodes (now identified as Caccodes granicollis...6/14/18) and was collected by Brent Steury near Little Hunting Creek on the George Washington Memorial Parkway lands, operated by the National Park Service. While the species is still unknown, it does represent a new state record for Virginia and is in the process

A very cool find. This is a lovely male Dieunomia nevadensis. It was found in Maryland at one of the Chaney Sand Mines. They kindly scraped a section of the site and sure enough it was colonized by all sorts of cool sand bees. No sand...no sand bees. That sort of thing. This one is particularly noteworth because the nearest record was from North Carolina. Did it fly

A large Hoplitis from the West Coast. Specifically from Yosemite National Park. Am still mystified by this genus, they are always around in small numbers, but never seem to be a "player" like some of the other genera, if you know what I mean. The specimens were collected for a project done by Lauren Ponisio - Study led by L. Ponisio examining the effect of fire diversity

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. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in

The red maple, Acer rubrum, often one of the most dominant trees in deciduous woods in the East. It blooms very early in the spring and provides pollen and nectar to the set of bees, and flower flies, that come out early. One can only imagine what the tonnage of pollen and nectar these trees produce in aggregate, and how such a seemingly small, component of the tree,