Images

A series of pictures of a queen and a male of the northernish bumble bee Bombus vagans. Still a reasonable common component of northern Appalachian systems, its been retreating from its lower elevation and southern edges over the last century.

One of the common and strikingly dark western bumble bees. This species largely restricted to coastal and Sierra ranges. The current specimen comes from Claire Kremen's study of Yosemite National Park bees. Photographs by Anders Croft.

More black bumble bees from Yosemite National Park. Here is the male of Bombus vosnesenskii. This species was described by the relatively prolific Polish Taxonomist Oktawiusz Wincenty Bourmeister-Radoszkowski who pumped out a great many new descriptions of bees in many parts of the world.

Brachyhesma species, Australian Minute Bee, specimen collected in AustraliaLong: Until recently those who worked on the taxonomy of bees, or taxonomy in general for that matter, were men. Culturally that imbalance is now shifting, though we clearly still have a ways to go.

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A small braconid wasp caught in a malaise trap outside the lab in Beltsville, MDCanon 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

A relatively common bee of Southern Chile. Seen regularly on Laurence Packer's expedition there in 2017. A lovely male. Photograph by Erick Hernandez.

Another Chrysidid wasp (cuckoo wasp) from the Hart-Miller Dredge Spoil site in Baltimore Harbor, collected by Eugene Scarpulla, photographed by Brooke Alexander Identification by Lynn KimseyCanon 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 o

A lovely Leaf Beetle, an eater of Dogwood leaves. Found in the Adirondack Mountains as part of the ATBI / BioBlitz. Photo stack by Dejen Mengis.

A little, somewhat flattened bee, from the mountains of Yosemite National Park. Members of this group are often very discriminating in their tastes for pollen. Feeding their young pollen often from a single genus of plants. Picky eaters I suppose. Part of a study by Claire Kremen in the high conifer regions of the Park. Photo by Anders Croft.

Centris...the tropical western hemisphere's answer to the Bumblebee. Bumblebees are absent from the Caribbean but bees of the genus Centris are of the same size and shape and fill the same floral niche muscling their way into large tropical flowers.

Bahamas

Cuba, GTMO, Guantanamo Bay

A small Centris species take by Sara Prado in Puerto Rico

A disjunct population of a western bee...or at least not intermediate populations have been found between Florida and the West. This specimen was caught almost in Georgia, so close as it might as well be recorded for the state.

Another Caribbean bee collected from Puerto Rico by Sara Prado. A lovely male. Photographed 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.

Centris fasciata, female, GTMO, Cuba, June 2011

Buttonbush, Cephalanthus occidentalis. Likes its feet wet, bumper crops of bees (particularly Hylaeus) and butterflies. No specialists in the bee arena, but adds pollen and nectar in wetlands. Photo and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman.

And now....Ceratina from Asia! Vietnam to be exact. The overall shape and aspect of Ceratinaness remains but what lovely facial colors or maculations as the old literature calls them. A betting person would use the patterns of past specimens to guess that the female will have fewer maculations, but the stripe running down the center of the clypeus will remain.

Tiny, Tiny, 10x shot of Ceratina arizonensis from the Zuma Canyon in the Santa Monica National Recreation Area in coastal California. Almost all Ceratina have that white stripe (or some greater embellishment thereof) on their face and are relatively hairless, perhaps because of their lifestyle in the pith of plant stems or...perhaps not.

Ceratina buscki a very small shiny green species from Panama as collected by Sandra Rehan as part of her studies. Ceratina species are almost always stem nesters in the soft pith of brambles and other small woody plants and can be one of the most common bees in some areas.