Images

Here is a series of males and females of Anthophora urbana from Yolo County, California. This bee was collected in the California Central Valley in Yolo County for research on small-scale restoration in agricultural areas. Claire Kremen's 10-year study of hedgerows shows the benefits of planting native shrubs and forbs in agricultural areas for native bees.

Messy. This Anthophora is just not very common around the MidAtlantic and I can't quite figure out any particular patterns to where it is ...and where it is not. It is also distributionally interesting since it is found on both coasts, but not in the prairies. Very suspicious. There needs to be an investigation. Are these different species?

An uncommon Anthophora from West Virginia...actually all the native Anthophora are uncommon in the mid-atlantic area and always nice to find. This one collected as part of Dave Smith's malaise trap systems.

A Japanese Bee in America. This is Anthophora villosula. An Anthophora that was introduced in the 80s to Eastern U.S. for ag purposes, but its potential was never realized. Now, unfortunately, it is a common and spreading alien species dispersing from its original location in the Washington D.C. area and will likely occupy much of the country at some point.

Butterfly Weed. The orange trickster. Providing nectar, but instead of edible pollen for a nice bee to eat. Wham. it locks packets of pollen onto the legs of a bee or butterfly and if the bee is strong enough it pulls free to possibly fly off to maybe or maybe not insert those pollinia into another butterfly weed plant.

Orange in Saturation. No need for Photoshop filters here. This is the orange orange of butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, a magnet for bees and butterflies, but provider only of nectar. Its visitors transfer butterfly weed pollen in sacs that get clipped onto the legs of big visitors when their foot slips into the florets.

From Santa Rosa Island , one of the Channel Islands off the coast of Southern California and part of the Channel Islands National Park come this tiny Ashmeadiella. 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.

Hemipteran, found in my office today, Beltsville, Maryland. Identified as a nymphal Assassin but of the genus Zelus by Speech Path Girl.... In hand sanitizer with plastic knife in the base to decrease refractions that lighten the lower sections...seem to work, but am now thinking that I need to get some crystal cuvettes that may have better visual acuity....

One of THE most common bees in Eastern North America and one of the most woodland oriented. This species nests in rotting wood and I have found them overwintering underneath the loose bark of logs on the ground.

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, Dark Purple/Blue form of this species that often occurs in coastal and Deep South situations

One of the most common bees in Eastern North America....a particular lover of open fields, this one from Boonesboro, Maryland

A western Augochlorella species... this time from Zion National Park in Utah, known for its rock formations, but also protecting some darn nice bees. Kim Huntzinger identified this bad boy and Wayne Boo took the shot today and of course the staff of Zion did the bee catching.

Biscayne National Park, male Florida, A Southeaster Bee of the deepest iridescence

We go, once again, to one of my favorite parts of the world, the Badlands of South Dakota. Among several types of Anthophora exists a nicely woke-up white banded species called Anthophora walshii. This species has an interesting distribution, it is almost entirely found in the prairies bumping up to the western mountain ranges.

Melitoma species. One of several species that are in the Melitoma clan, that also occurred in Costa Rica. This is collected by Tim McMahon while on an expedition to that lovely country. The species is currently unknown, at least to us, but note the very long tongue, super characteristic.

Here you have a honey bee and two mites upon that honey bee. Both are varroa mites, one by the leg is feeding on the bee and the other is hitching a ride after leaving another bee. This drama was provided by Krisztina Christmon at the University of Maryland where she studies the life history of mites and bees. We did a little back lit shot here, more to come.

The Drone or male of the honeybee. Note the eyes, they actually meet on top of the head. It lives only do mate with a virgin queen and the expanded compount eyes help. Note the weak reflection of the female's heavily modified hind tibia, still expanded, but not really functionally, probably a molecularly cheap byproduct of being haploid.

Honey bee face, Apis mellifera, note the hairs coming off the compound eyes...a distinctive honey bee trait compared to native bees (other than Coelioxys)Beltsville Maryland

The Honey bee, Apis mellifera

More worker honey bee shots from USDA honey bee specimens. These are both in the light body format and were collected in Beltsville, Maryland by Francisco Posada from the National Honey Bee Lab.

Wild Sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.