Images

South Carolina

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.

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,

I think many people think of cacti as icons, something made for us to look at, but since we rarely use cacti for anything and because their fleshy shapes and lifestyles are so different we think of them more as lampposts than integrated into our landscapes as much as the grasses, forbs, and trees. But without cacti entire worlds would disappear.

Collected in Chile in Patagonia near Chile Chico,on an expedition with Laurence Packer. This is a Diadasia of some sort. Laurence, surely will figure out all the species names so we can update these pictures.

Collected in Chile in Patagonia near Chile Chico,on an expedition with Laurence Packer. This is a Diadasia of some sort. Laurence, surely will figure out all the species names so we can update these pictures.

South Dakota, Badlands national Park

South Dakota, Badlands national Park

Dianthidium concinnum, Male, Pennington County, South Dakota

Helicoverpa zea - Corn Earworm - According to Wikipedia its the second most economically damaging insect pest in North America, chewing on a wide variety of crop plants. This most certainly is true, but it also not a bad looking animal when viewed close up.

The dogwood of the people. Cornus florida. Planted widely. Formerly forming a subcanopy of white in the spring in much of the eastern forests. Then, the Dogwood Anthracnose comes and most of those interior woodland dogwood are now gone and dogwood is largely confined to edges of woodlands or plantings in the open. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Ah, the dancing curves of Corydalis flavula. A small part of the glory of spring in the Mid-Atlantic states. Picture and specimen from Helen Lowe Metzman from Howard County, Maryland.