Images

Ah, a tiny little iris. One of the Blue-eyed Grasses. These make wonderful little tiny garden potted plants by the way. Bees visit them regularly, though the plant is so small its role as bee food is probably overlooked more than not. Sisyrinchium angustifolium. Specimen and picture by Helen Lowe Metzman.

The tricky Small Hive Beetle. One of the banes of bee keepers, Aethina tumida. Small things, about the size of half an eraser head. These beetles smell like bees and even sometimes get fed by bees. As you will see in another post showing the larva, it is not the adults that are the problem to the bee keeper it is ....the bad habits of the babies.

Carrion Flower. Yep, fly pollinated...lovely vine design too. Smilax herbacea.

snake skin likely from a Black Rat Snake, Maryland, Soldier's Delight

Spodoptera eridania - Southern armyworm. A pest in southern parts of the U.S. mostly Florida. Defoliator of tomatoes and other crops. Not a candidate for the insect Miss Universe contest...or is is? I think close up there is a lot of beauty in this series of life history shots, but that is my personal opinion.

Spodoptera eridania - Southern armyworm. A pest in southern parts of the U.S. mostly Florida. Defoliator of tomatoes and other crops. Not a candidate for the insect Miss Universe contest...or is is? I think close up there is a lot of beauty in this series of life history shots, but that is my personal opinion.

Or an old dried caterpillar, unknown species, supplied to me by Ash the insect hunter. Photo by Sara Guerrieri. Update: Ash has provided and identification of this old Caterpillar and it is a Giant Leopard Moth, Hypercompe Scribonia.

Here is both and interesting bit of history and an interesting bit of photography. This is a small portion of a slate gorget (on the right hand side you can see a hole that we drilled). This fragment was found along the banks of the Patuxent River in Maryland but the slate is from Central Ohio.

The head of a very small robber fly, how wonderful to see up close the insect solution to vision, Beltsville, Maryland

Experimental shot (see previous picture in series) , but this time taken from the front...notice the great drop off in the reflection.

A small very black bee with an extremely wide head.Note the lobe projecting from the "cheek" back towards the thorax. This is one member of a fairly large genus of bees that are restricted to tropical South America south. From...the Packer Lab.

Blackberries...(Rubus species).

Sand Wasp, female, Sand Wasp from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba

Another shot of Bloodroot, Sanguinaria canadensis by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland. Note the lovely unfurling leaf.

Glischrochilus sanguinolentus - Another 10X shot, this of the head of a small little sap beetle that I found feeding on the cut end of a Boxelder in my backyard, apparently this beetle is fond of maples, their sap, and the associated fungi/bacteria growing on the sap.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker - Died in a collision with a building in Washington D.C. recovered by Lights out DC volunteer group.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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Wouldn't you want a building that looked like this...While parsing through the residues from the US Forest Service's Bent Creek Experimental Forest bee traps, Dejen Mengis found this lovely annual cicada (species unknown). The combination of residual water and the natural interference patterns of the wings created these lovely stained glass effects.

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, nest parasite of other bee species

Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge, South Carolina, nest parasite of other bee species

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

Stelis lateralis - A nest parasite of Osmia...often seemingly associated with O. pumila. This one was found in the New York City area in Gateway National Recreation Area. Photographed by Kamren Jefferson and photo shopped by Elizabeth Garcia.