Images

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.

Bombus griseocollis, Queen , South Dakota, USA, Badlands

Bombus griseocollis, Queen, South Dakota, USA, Badlands

Bombus terricola, male, first Maryland record, July 2012

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Agrilus ruficollis from my backyard. Likely from my moth sheet, but am running through my backlog of pictures and can't recall.

A very small soldier beetle. This beetle is from the genus Malthodes (now identified as Caccodes granicollis...6/14/18) and was collected by Brent Steury near Little Hunting Creek on the George Washington Memorial Parkway lands, operated by the National Park Service.

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

Dominican Republic

I don't run into the Blue Cohosh often, but want to say that it is fly rather than bee pollinated...but could easily be wrong. Certainly a woodland understory plant that blooms after much of the bee activity is done with. Picture and specimen from Helen Lowe Metzman.

Blue Cohosh. A close up of one of the flowers of Caulophyllum thalictroides. A lovely spring perennial of rich deciduous woodlands. Picture and specimen taken by Helen Lowe Metzman. Howard County, Maryland.

Notice, in particular the lobed tip of the tongue in this shot. A Western Hemisphere group, with a good number of species. These are very fast fliers and, at least the North American species tend to be crepuscular and plant specialists, often associated with sandy/dune areas.

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, San Salvador Island, Collected by Dan Kjar

Cuba, GTMO, Guantanamo Bay

A lovely Centris from Puerto Rico, collected by Sara Prado

A lovely Centris from Puerto Rico, collected by Sara Prado

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

A lovely slightly florescent orange bumble bee from Taiwan. So many combinations of color and form in each genus of bee! 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 the U.S. National Arboretum comes the now relatively uncommon Bombus fervidus. A species in delcine, but still present and how nice to have this one present right in Washington D.C. Pictures by Ashleigh Jacobs.

From the U.S. National Arboretum comes the now relatively uncommon Bombus fervidus. A species in delcine, but still present and how nice to have this one present right in Washington D.C. Pictures by Ashleigh Jacobs.