Images

Eucerinoda gayi, Gay 's EucerineClaude Gay was a French entomologist who in the early 1800 's traveled to Chile to teach. However natural history was his passion and he spent most of his time in the country studying the plants, animals, and geology.

Osiris, Atlatl Godbee, Collected in ColombiaThe ancient Egyptian God Osiris was associated with both the afterlife and a greenish skin, and at least indirectly with Honey Bees.

Cumberland Island National Seashore, Georgia, Dark Purple/Blue form of this species that often occurs in coastal and Deep South situations

This bee is in your garden! Have you seen it? Collected on the Tomatoes in Francisco Posada's in Laurel, Maryland

The smooth tones of an unexpected composite, Baccharis halimifolia. Photo taken by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland. 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.

The smooth tones of an unexpected composite, Baccharis halimifolia. Photo taken by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland. 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.

Persimmon Psyllid, Baeoalitriozus diospyri, collected on persimmon yesterday by Brad Seay in Davidsonville Maryland. Adult and eggs.

3X close-up of the homemade paper that made up the outside of a Bald-faced Hornet Nest here in Beltsville. I discovered the nest after getting stung when out trail running in the woods and went back to find that it was built on the ground in short vegetation. A few days later it was destroyed. Note the different colored fibers from different fiber sources.

Bombus ashtoni! This is news. This species of bumble bee is nest parasite. They take over the nests of other bumble bees and use the host's workers to produce their progeny. This one is special because its known hosts are B. affinis (the endangered Rusty-patched Bumble Bee) and B.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, collected at Morris Arboretum by Stephanie Wilson

There are a lot of bumble bee species out there, about 50 species or so north of Mexico. Some arguments regarding species boundaries, but, bottomline is there are more than most people would suppose. Here is Bombus bifarius. Another common western bee, one a bit more likely to nest above ground than some of the others....sometimes even showing up in bird houses.

Bee of Yosemite. This is Bombus bifarius, a male (see all the yellow on the face shot? that is a good indication of a male bumble bee....not all species show this pattern, but it is a general trend. Females tend to have a nearly all black face with perhaps a topknot of yellow hairs, but I digress).

Bee of Yosemite. This is Bombus bifarius, a male (see all the yellow on the face shot? that is a good indication of a male bumble bee....not all species show this pattern, but it is a general trend. Females tend to have a nearly all black face with perhaps a topknot of yellow hairs, but I digress).

The head of Bombus bimaculatus, our earliest spring bumblebee, unlike some of the other species it is still very common in most parts of the eastern United States and by late June/July you can see that the nests are producing males and beginning to wind down the season for the species. This one was collected by Laura Russo somewhere near State College Pennsylvania.

A western bumble bee. Bombus californicus is a reasonably uncommon dark-winged Bumble bee that ranges from the Rockies to the West and whose populations may have been knocked back by the same pathogen suite as the gone or nearly gone species such as B. affinis and B. franklini.

Power...This is Bombus citrinus, a female just emerged from where she hibernated overwinter and looking for the new nests of a queen bumblebee, note the sting on the prominent tail end of this bee, she uses that to eliminate or paralyze the female of another bumblebee, taking over the nest and essentially enslaving the daughters of the queen to now raise her young.

The odd case of Bombus citrinus. This species is a nest parasite on other Bumble Bees and as is the case in many, if perhaps not all, the parasitic species it has an unusually long top of the head...in other words the distance from the ocelli to the back of the head is longer than in other species.

A parasite of other bumblebeeds, B. citrinus, is the most common parasitic species in the East, but, as a parasite this still means it is very uncommon. The tale is simple, this species invades a nest, eliminates queen, and makes workers raise its own young.

This is the main orange butted Bumblebee of the East. Bombus ternarius. It can be very common in places like the Adirondacks where this one was collected, but occurs throughout a wide range of the Upper Midwest to New England and throughout southern Quebec and Ontario in our gardens and fields.

An uncommon species and one that had under gone some recent declines, Bombus terricola has seen increases recently in at least parts of its range.

Bombus vagans. One of a set of Bumble bee tricksters for those who have to identify them. Very similar to B. sandersoni, and B. perplexus. Each with enough variations in their abdominal plumage to sometimes cause some specimens to go unidentified. Here is a male,.... first 2 tergites with yellow remainder black.