Images

Ground Cricket....from around the base of Building 308, Beltsville Agriculture Research Center, unknown species

Appropriately coming from the latin noun for emerald, comes this large lovely from western Australia.

I believe that this specimen came from Kenya, but I could be wrong about that, will have to check with Laurence Packer and look up the barcode number. Note the cool oil collecting hairs present under the abdomen.

A native plant associated with dry rocky areas...usually intermixed with woodlands. As a mint it probably is a reasonable bee plant as an obscure, small plant it probably hasn't been looked at that much. Classic native mint used in all sorts of teas and infusions. Photo and specimen by Helen Low Metzman, Howard County, MD.

Cupido comyntas, July 2012, Beltsville, Maryland, USA

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.

In full bloom this is more of a lavender/blue flower, but not one that people pay much mind to. Diodia teres, often called Poorjoe, is a plant associated with highly disturbed, often sandy dry sites. Does well, I have collected bees off it, but not enough to make much of a study of it. This specimen was collected and photographed by Helen Lowe Metzman.

In full bloom this is more of a lavender/blue flower, but not one that people pay much mind to. Diodia teres, often called Poorjoe, is a plant associated with highly disturbed, often sandy dry sites. Does well, I have collected bees off it, but not enough to make much of a study of it. This specimen was collected and photographed by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Drepanaporus collaris, Dominican Republic, La Vega, determination by Pompilid guru Juanita Rodriguez

One of about 3 Monarda specialist in Eastern North America. This uncommon bee was collected in Wisconsin, likely by Denny Johnson and photographed by Amber Reese. A northern species and not one we have had any experience collecting or observing. That said, it could occur in Maryland if people spend more time collecting off of Bee Balm.

Isle Royale, Michigan

Isle Royale, Michigan

Isle Royale, Michigan

Specialist: Colletes latitarsis, a lover of ground cherry,Physalis, a weedy plant, but a flowering one, and a native one, with its own set of the species that appear to only gather pollen and perhaps nectar from its flowers. This plant though is not uncommon, and occurs in many of the gardens.

This bee collects pollen from the weedy, but native, Physalis or ground cherry plants. The flowers of this group are low and dangly and tend to be overlooked as does Colletes latitarsis. Likely more common than would appear as it rarely goes into traps and is hard to find unless hunted for directly. Joe Milone was the photographer.

Hiding in plain site. Is this Cellophane Bee... Colletes latitarsis is a bee that only feeds its babies pollen from the all american weed. Ground Cherry.... Physalis to you sciencey types. The thing about Physalis is that it is very shy about showing its sexual parts. The flowers dangle underneath its leafy roof and are this side of green for a yellow flower.

This bee collects pollen from the weedy, but native, Physalis or ground cherry plants. The flowers of this group are low and dangly and tend to be overlooked as does Colletes latitarsis. Likely more common than would appear as it rarely goes into traps and is hard to find unless hunted for directly. Joe Milone was the photographer.

Colletes nudus, female, Suffolk County, New York

From Suffolk, County New York near the tip of Long Island in September, This species just pops up in mid to late summer at low levels in the East. You should be so lucky to have some in the native habitat you encouraged on your property. (You did do that didn't you?). Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

The bee genus Colletes...also known as Cellophane Bees because of their habitat of lining their cells with a plastic like substance...is full of relatively uncommon bees that specialist on a the pollen of a small number of plants or groups of plants. This may be the case with C. phaceliae given its name...but I am not clear.

Here are 4 views of Colletes phaceliae. Hannah Sutton took these using 4 different back grounds, just to play with something other than a Black background. With these more complicated backgrounds I have a harder time removing the pin in photoshop....perhaps people can give me some feedback on how to make that more seemless.