Images

Colletes thysanellae, female

Male Colletes brimleyi

South Carolina

Cotesia congregata - a little parasite of caterpillars. This one is from Karen Kester's lab in Richmond where she and her gradstudents raise them and discover things about the host (Sphinx moths I believe) parasite relationship. Photo by Greta Forbes.

An unknown Crab Spider or perhaps running crab spider, identification help would be great, I hope to post another shot of the back at some point. Beltsville, Maryland

Appropriately coming from the latin noun for emerald, comes this large lovely from western Australia.

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Christmas lights jumping spider from the Dominican Republic, species unknown, but surprisingly marked with fluorescent scales

Tenebrionidae, found at night chewing on a small patch of shelf fungi on a stump in Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Another unknown Chrysops species from Maryland, see assocaited back shot for possible id, collected from the resulting cloud of flies after a run through Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Maryland

A bit of the green seed head of one of my favorite grasses, I leave patches of this plant when I mow the "lawn." Presumably this is Dichanthelium clandestinum (formerly Panicum clandestinum), but am not sure if there are look alikes in my area.Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler,

A relatively uncommon Cellophane Bee from South Georgia in old Long-leaf Pine habitat. Not much is known about this species, most of the records are from the Southeast with a few suspicious ones up north. Collected by the bee fabulous Sabrie Breland. I accidentally shredded this ones wings when cleaning it.

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.

From Suffolk, County New York near the tip of Long Island in September, This species just pops up in mid to late summer at low levels in the East. You should be so lucky to have some in the native habitat you encouraged on your property. (You did do that didn't you?). Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

Here are 4 views of Colletes phaceliae. Hannah Sutton took these using 4 different back grounds, just to play with something other than a Black background. With these more complicated backgrounds I have a harder time removing the pin in photoshop....perhaps people can give me some feedback on how to make that more seemless.

Colletes phaceliae - Western bee, but this one caught at the edge of its range, where it was hanging out in Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Photo by Erick Hernandez and Kelly Graninger.

Colletes pahceliae - As you might suspect it is a lover of the plant phaceliae. Many of the Colletes are tight plant specialists. Only feeding their babies the pollen from one group of plants. With that lifestyle comes your status becomes linked to the the status of those plants. The status of those native plants are a mirror of how we treat our environments.

Dianthidium simile, female, Michigan, July 2011, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

Dieunomia heteropoda, male, note the flanges on the rear tibia

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150 year old specimen from Mexico that was deposited in the Paris Entomological Collection. Note the crenulated antennae and the fact that the specimen has largely retained its shape and color all these years. Many of these old specimens are still our reference points for taxonomy, distributions, and what things were like in the past.