Images

Melissodes communis, Biscayne National Park, Florida

Asteracea is important. Here is Melissodes subillatus, which is fluffy, but basically about the size of a honey bee. It, like so many Melissodes, and so many bees in general, is an Asteraceae specialist. This species does not appear to be too picky and uses a range of fall composites, but a look inside the pollen loads would be interesting for sure.

Asteracea is important. Here is Melissodes subillatus, which is fluffy, but basically about the size of a honey bee. It, like so many Melissodes, and so many bees in general, is an Asteraceae specialist. This species does not appear to be too picky and uses a range of fall composites, but a look inside the pollen loads would be interesting for sure.

Melitoma taurea....a bindweed/morning glory specialist. This species seems to find the invasive non-native bindweeds perfectly acceptable and thus you can find it nesting right in the middle of cities as well in natural areas. Notable for the length of its tongue which, even when folded up extends to the abdomen.

Last in a series of an unknown Melitoma from Costa Rico.

The tiny twin whiteness of Partridgeberry blooms. Just part of that lovely obscure flora we have that paints some of our forest floors. I associate Mitchella repens with woods on the acid end of the scale in areas with a little slope and not a lot of competition with other plants. A hard one to take good shots with our set up ....too white....too much flash.

The tiny twin whiteness of Partridgeberry blooms. Just part of that lovely obscure flora we have that paints some of our forest floors. I associate Mitchella repens with woods on the acid end of the scale in areas with a little slope and not a lot of competition with other plants. A hard one to take good shots with our set up ....too white....too much flash.

Ghost Pipe, nice name for the parasitic plant. Who knew that it is now considered to be part of the Heath family with kinship to blueberries and cranberries. Pollinators go to the ghost pipe too. Plant and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Eggs, Harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica, a common pest of brassicas, these were raised by the Weber USDA lab at Beltsville, Maryland

Unknown species of what is presumably a Mutillid Velvet Ant. Because it has wings it is therefore a male. Collected at the NPS Fort Matanzas National Monument.

Mutillid Wasp, Male Velvet Ant, Prince George's County, Maryland

Taxonomy and Discovery. One would expect based on what we know about things like plants and birds, that we would largely have figured out what species of bees exist in the Eastern United States...Not so, still much to do for the students of bees.

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We have already added the male of this species. As the name implies this species is rufous in its hairs. Check the hairs filled with pollen underneath the abdomen. Collected by Jelle Devalez in the Aegean Islands of Greece. Photography by Brooke Alexander.

Osmia rufohirta - An Osmia from the Grecian Isles that nests in snail shells. Not this specimen as it is a male and does essentially nothing but mate. Lots of reddish hairs on this species as the name implies. Specimen collected by Jelle Devalez.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Great Smoky Mountains National Park

Another sand loving bee from Cumberland Island, Georgia. Distributed throughout the Southeast. Thistle Droege is the photoshopper and Kamren Jefferson the photographer.

Acadia National Park brings you a common northern Osmia (Osmia simillima)....large and with oddly shortened and modified front legs, which must be important for something. Picture by Sierra Williams, shopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

A somewhat big and somewhat northern Osmia. One of the frustrating things about bees is that entire groups look about the same, such is Osmia.