Images

Polistes dominulus from the Dominican Republic

Who doesn't like the physique of the Paper wasp.

Here we present a series of pictures of Polistes wasp nests with lavae, pupae, eggs, and interlopers.

Damselfly in Hand Sanitizer, Beltsville, Maryland

Water Strider, Gerridae, Beltsville, Maryland, Suspended in Hand Sanitzer

Ah, such an interesting plant for bees. Pontedaria cordata....Pickerelweed. Lives out in fairly deep water, emerges in the spring...sends up a spike of blue flowers in mid-summer. This plant is very attractive to long-tongued bees which have to reach way down to get nectar and pollen.

Ant, The Winter Ant, Prenolepis imparis, aka False HoneyPot ant. This is the head of the male. Small, taken with 10X microscope objective on a 200mm Pentax. Found this past spring in a swarm by Jan Reese who noticed Cedar Waxwings munching on the males in St. Michael's Maryland. Another day in the life of Earth.

This little red bee was collected on spotted beebalm. It seems to be the only species of plant, with the possibility of some close relatives being involved, that this bee finds worthy of collecting pollen from. If you Google images of spotted beebalm you'll see that it is quite the complicated and rather ornate flowering plant.

One of the best bee plants...big, tall, and simply by being a tree, voluminous in pollen and nectar resources. Black Cherry. Prunus serotina. Specimen and plants by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Pseudomyrmex gracilis from Biscayne National Park, Florida. Thanks to Doug Yanega for the Genus name and James Trager for the species name of this introduced species

The lovely web of branches in the pollen collecting hairs of this little bee Pseudopanurgus albitarsis is lovely. A more prairie like species, but here it is in the Shenadoah Valley...always more prairie like than the surrounding mountain landscapes. Collected by Morgan Rondinelli. Photographed by Brooke Alexander.

May or may not be a parasitic wasp, could be an aculeate, Dominican Republic, photographed floating in hand sanitizer in a quartz cuvette. Roger Burks via Doug Yanega identified this as Psilochalcis

Pterocheilus quinquefasciatus. - Hunter of caterpillars...in this case, hunter of caterpillars in South Dakota Badlands. This wasp has long stiff hairs on the palps of its tongue and it uses them like a basket...carrying dirt of its nest and away from the nest entrance so it is harder for parasitoids to track its babies locations.

Pterostichus permundus - A new Carabid Beetle for the State of Maryland. Captured at Cove Point at the tip of Calvert County Maryland by Brent Steury as part of his survey of the beetles of the site. For those of you who care, the leg shot is included showing the 4 tiny setae that separate this species from its sister taxa.

Pterostichus permundus - A new Carabid Beetle for the State of Maryland. Captured at Cove Point at the tip of Calvert County Maryland by Brent Steury as part of his survey of the beetles of the site. For those of you who care, the leg shot is included showing the 4 tiny setae that separate this species from its sister taxa.

I have nicknamed this bee (Ptilothrix bombiformis) the refuge bee because it is found so often on National Wildlife Refuges. Why? Well this species is a hibiscus specialist and refuges are full of impoundments and those impoundments often have fresh water hibiscus plants in them.

Paracolletes species, On and Off Bee, specimen collected in AustraliaThis species is unusually sexually dimorphic in color. The males are quite bright, as can be seen here, the females are what might be called the "null hypothesis" for bee coloration "“ brownish grey on the head and thorax with a black abdomen with white transverse hair bands.

A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integument.

A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integumen.

Why do you insist, Pilgrim, on planting your garden with geraniums, tea roses, and begonias? You could be planting your garden to Woodlands sunflowers and then you would have the opportunity to help out the uncommon and undoubtedly declining Paranthidium jugatorium.

Pararhophites orobinus, Yellow Pollen Ball Bee, collected in Uzbekistan by Christophe Praz. This interesting little bee belongs to a genus of just three species from North Africa through Central Asia. They continue to confuse bee experts because of uncertainties about where they fit in the classificatory scheme. This is a work in progress.