Images

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).

Another set of pictures of a different specimen of Svastra duplocincta. Below is a repeat of the previous verbage for the species.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.

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge is a good place for Svastra obliqua. This is the male which was quite common around their pollinator garden at their visitor's center. Nice to have mini-wildlife as well as macro-wildlife taken care of at a refuge.Pictures by Hannah Sutton and Ashleigh Jacobs, Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

A lovely Deep South Svastra, S. petulca to be specific. A nice pollen shot. You can see the huge bushy pollen carrying hairs on its hind legs, designed to carry dry pollen unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees which mix their pollen with nectar.

A lovely Deep South Svastra, S. petulca to be specific. A nice pollen shot. You can see the huge bushy pollen carrying hairs on its hind legs, designed to carry dry pollen unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees which mix their pollen with nectar.

North Carolina, Wake County, collected by Adrian L. Carper

North Carolina, Wake County, collected by Adrian L. Carper

Ah, how lovely small things can be. Here is a Torymus species (thanks Matt Buffington for the looky id while you were in the lab). Often parasitizing gall forming wasps, you can see from its ovipositer that something interesting is happening out there in nature land.

Upper Marlboro, MD, May 2012

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, SC

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, SC

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina

If you find a Trachusa in the East, and probably if you find it anywhere, you are a good keeper of the land. These species and T. ridingsii in particular have just disappeared from much of our landscape. Unlike many other bees they don't integrate well with urban, suburban, agricultural interfaces as currently wrought.

Cast skin, Maryland, collected by Richard Orr

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.

Yo, Triepeolus people you are darn sharp looking bees. Here is T. donatus. Collected near State College in Pennsylvania by Laura Russo. Its host is going to be a Melissodes, in this case M.

Oh look, another Triepeolus. In this case it is T. helianthi from West Virginia from Kanawha County. Most likely this was collected by the fabulous Jane Whitaker, who covered most of the state in her collecting adventures. A fabulous contribution in an unexplored beescape. Photo by Sara Guerrieri.