Images

Captured by the butterfly convert Don Harvey in the wilds of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, here is the hunky Anthophora californica captured, as you can see from the pollen after servicing the local flowers. Thank you bees. Picture taken by Joaquin Mogollon.

One of the few species in the genus Anthophora with a strong pollen preference. Its almost solely found on Boraginaceae, especially Alkanna and Anchusa.

Anthophora bomboides, male, May 2012, Allegany County, Maryland....Friends at the National Wildlife Federation have suggested this be called the Kenny Rogers Bee...for obvious reasons.

Antlion, doodlebug, whatever you want to call the larvae of these Neuropterans they are wicked weird looking at 10X. Check out the primitive "eyes" on the stalks on either side of the head and the long, mean scythes of manidibles. What if this one was the size of a doberman...who would win that fight? Picture by Joe Milone.

Here you have a honey bee and two mites upon that honey bee. Both are varroa mites, one by the leg is feeding on the bee and the other is hitching a ride after leaving another bee. This drama was provided by Krisztina Christmon at the University of Maryland where she studies the life history of mites and bees. We did a little back lit shot here, more to come.

Honey bee face, Apis mellifera,Beltsville Maryland

Over the next few days I hope to put up some new Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) shots from bees collected at the many hives here at the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center maintained by bee whisperer Francisco Posada. In part we are focusing on the plumage differences, showing the variation between dark and light bodied individuals.

Queen Bee photo spread. Collected by Tim McMahon from a colony in Talbot County, while slightly gummy as Honeybees are want to be, this series shows the longer abdomen, the odd curly dark hairs on top of the head and the broad hind tibia, but lacking the hairs and pollen basket that the workers have.

Black Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa. Consider the chokeberry....native and super full of antioxidants, also super attractive to native bees. Why don't you have any in your yard? Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Ah, reaching way back in history now to 2012,,,,not completely satisfied with this shot of B. flavifrons, but it will have to do. From Wyoming, where a number of red butted bumble bees live.

Bombus fraternus. The Southern Plains Bumble Bee. This crisp, handsome and short-faced bee suffers from lack of an adequate publicist. Thought, several other Bumble Bees in its clan, to be in decline from introduced pathogens. It gets little mention in the bee press.

Bombus fraternus - Here is one of the very uncommon bumblebees that are of great concern these days, due to introduced parasites that have caused this species and its sister taxa to crash. Fortunately, they are still around, at least in small numbers.

Check the eyes out on this male Bumble Bee. We already put up a spread of female B. fraternus, but the male has some pretty unique features for bumble bees. For one, the eyes are HUGE, they nearly meet at the top of the head. Only a few other bumbles do that...and the face is extremely short, with the mandibles almost joined to the bottom of the eyes.

Philadelphia Bee Survey, 2012, Pennsylvania, Stephanie Wilson Collector, Morris Arboretum

More bumble bees...! But this one is from New Zealand. Do bumble bees belong in New Zealand? No. They were introduced. This one is Bombus hortorum, Widespread in Europe and Asia...and now widespread in New Zealand this species was purposefully introduced to help with clover related pollination.

Badlands National Park, South Dakota

A lovely queen Bombus impatiens from Richmond City, Virginia. Photograph taken by Steve Roble. 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.

People think that identifying Bumble Bees are easy. They are big, there are "guides" that show the color patterns...so what could go wrong....well....things like this specimen of Bombus impatiens. It should have NO red / brown on it, but this specimens has 2 whole tergites that are reddish brown.

A hulking bumble bee nest parasite. Bombus insularis is another example of alternative bumble bee lifestyles. Usurping nests of other bumbles to raise their young. This one is found throughout the northern parts of North America and down the western mountains, but not the Appalachians.

From Yellowstone National Park comes the powerful Bombus insularis, and this parasite of other bumblebees is one bad ass bee. collected as part of a high elevation study of the Alpine areas throughout the United States, with the idea that climate change first reaches the tops of things and the bottom of things (oceans that is).

Another male Yosemite Bumble Bee. B. melanopygus is similar to B. bifarius illustrated in the last set of picture, but a bit more higher elevation and bit more arctic in its distributions. There is a softness to the face here that I find most appealing. Collected by Claire Kremen's group in the National Park. Photo by Anders Croft.