Images

Gliding in from Costa Rica comes a moderalely large, moderately green bee. An Agapostemon nasutus. There are a lot of the these bright green bees out there...Not just in C.R. but throughout the Americas. Beautiful, and once you start paying attention, quite common. But are there any songs written about them? No. Poems? Zero. Green Bee Secret Societies?

Dominican Republic, The only described all black Agapostemon in the Caribbean is from Cuba. (A. obscuratus). Collected in November of 2012. This is either A. obscuratus and a new record for Hispaniola or a new species.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

More Green Bees. This is a common one, one of the commonest summer bees in the East. Agapostemon virescens. The females have a black abdomen unlike the other female Agapostemons in the East which are bright green all round. This one was caught in Caroline County in Maryland. Picture by Amanda Robinson.

Here is the face of the specimen in the previous photo.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

White Snakeroot, Ageratina altissima. Collected and Photographed by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Andrena anograe, female, Badlands National Park

Andrena anograe, female, South Dakota, Badlands National Park

Collected by Ellison Orcutt, in Caroline County Virginia this small spring Andrena is a fan girl of mustards, particularly the spring mustards that are native and occur in wooded and semi-shaded areas in the spring, often very early in the spring.

A couple more shots of Andrena asteris, one male, and one female. Note the super fluffy hairs on the hind tibia of the female.

Andrena astragali, female, Badlands National Park, SD

Andrena banksi, female, covered in pollen

Andrena banksi, male

Andrena barbara, male

Andrena hybrida: A small bee from the Grecian Isles, ...interesting in that unlike the hundreds of others of its Andrena kinfolk, rather than appearing all black has the size, shape, and coloration of a several species of cleptoparasitic bees who have red abdomens. Why is that?

Andrena ilicis. A bit of a mystery bee. It seems to be associated with Woodlands, but other than that I don't have much of a feel for the species. This one was collected in Somerset County Maryland.

Andrena illini, A rather large, spring bee, I associate this one with Woodlands and the edge of Woodlands, where found them feeding on blackberries in particular. This one was collected in Somerset County by Timothy McMahon. Photograph by Hannah Sutton.

Andrena Illini. Named after the University of Illinois football team by Wally LaBerge. While he was one of the great taxonomy experts that we recently lost. He was a specialist in Andrena and Melissodes and dabbled in several other genera of bees.

Andrena illinoiensis, South Dakota, Badlands National Park,

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.