Images

Yellow-shafted Flicker, Breast Feather, in original colors with hints of brown/tan in some of the basal barbs, From a specimen picked up on the streets, by the group "Lights out DC" of Washington DC in 2012 after striking a building

Vespula squamosa - The Southern Yellow Jacket....the two yellow racing stripes on the top of the thorax (scutum) are diagnostic in the SE U.S. Collected by Tim McMahon from Talbot County, Maryland, Notice the notched compound eyes characteristic of most vespids.

Common Pricklyash. Zanthoxylum americanum. Very rare now in Maryland. Specimen and photograph by Helen Lowe Metzman.

White-throated Sparrow, Died in downtown Washington D.C. in the fall or spring of 2012 from striking a building at night. Retrieved by the Lights out DC program

Unknown Wasp species from Hardy County, West Virginia...likely an Ichneumonid. Photograph by Wayne Boo.

Unknown wasp, collected in Cecil County, Maryland by Tim McMahon Doug Yanega identified this as nyssonine, likely to be ZanyssonCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

Fun wasp from Kruger National Park. Note the expanded antennal ends (actually the other antennae snapped off). Most likely this is one of the pollen gathering wasps in Masserinae group. So, you thought only bees in the stinging category of insects gathered pollen. Nope. However, in North America, these wasps mostly, if not entirely show up only in the West.

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Unknown Sphecid wasp from Badlands National Park in South Dakota collected as part of a large survey of the bees of the park. Photograph taken 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

Identified wasp from a vegetable farm in Wicomico County Maryland. Photography by Brooke Alexander. 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.

Unknown Wasp, Yellowstone National Park, 2012

unknown weevil species, Chino Farms, Maryland

Hylocichla mustelina, killed when striking the Hart Senate Building in Washington D.C., during migration, collected with permits by LightsOutDC

A couple more prickly ash photos taken by Helen Low Metzman.

Xylocopa inconstans, one of several species of Carpenter Bees that come from Kruger National Park. This white patch makes it relatively distinct. Part of expeditions led by Jonathan Mawdsley and James Harrison. Photo by Erick Hernandez.

Here is a lovely carpenter bee from the southeastern part of the U.S., a bit smaller than X. viginica and as far as I know nests in twigs rather and does no damage to timbers (not that X. virginica does much in the way of real structural damage).

The other eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans). Here is the male...more blue than black. This species does not inhabit the porches, fences, decks, and cedar siding of our houses like its cousin X. virginica.

The other eastern carpenter bee (Xylocopa micans). Here is the male...more blue than black. This species does not inhabit the porches, fences, decks, and cedar siding of our houses like its cousin X. virginica.

Ahhhhhh, the beauty of the wings of Carpenter Bees, this lovely specimen from Thailand, found lounging around the Packer Lab, Trivia = Carpenter Bees lay the world's largest insect eggs.

Vespid wasp from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is one that we see periodically taking nips of nectar from some of the trees we study. No time to look up the species group, but likely it a social species of some kind. Large too, about the size of a bumblebee in length..,Photo by Erick Hernandez.