Images

April, Dorchester County, Maryland, likely off of willow, resting on fish hook tip. Joe Cavey supplied the determination

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

Unknown Cuerna species of Leafhopper from Fossil Butte National Monument, Wyoming

A native plant associated with dry rocky areas...usually intermixed with woodlands. As a mint it probably is a reasonable bee plant as an obscure, small plant it probably hasn't been looked at that much. Classic native mint used in all sorts of teas and infusions. Photo and specimen by Helen Low Metzman, Howard County, MD.

Unknown large weevil from Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic

Unknown large weevil from Jarabacoa, Dominican Republic

Ironically, after posting a picture of a dead white footed mouse, we post a picture of a skin warble or bot fly from the same species or species group of mice. In this case this is Cuterebra fontinella, a rather handsome fly with an interesting lifestyle. Collected as part of a large bumblebee survey by volunteers for Eric Rayfield. Photograph by Hannah Sutton.

Christmas Lights Jumping Spider from the Dominican Republic, species unknown, but surprisingly marked with fluorescent scales

Taraxacum officinale, common dandelion found in lawn of building 308 at the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center, Beltsville, MD

Green seed 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, F5.0, ISO 100,

The Dog Tick, Dermacentor variabilis, in its splendor of beet overtones and resistance to vilification. Found crawling on me in Beltsville, Maryland

Back to the Badlands of South Dakota. Here we get Diadasia....something that only shows up once you hit some of the isolated prairies in the MidWest until when you got to much of the West...they are everywhere. A common species, this one was found in a number of locations in the Badlands.

Fuzzy, round-headed, and big are a pretty good short cut to the ID of Diadasia bees. Westerners, they, in a very casual pocket prairie sort of way make East of the Mississippi River. The bulk of the population is in dry natural areas from the middle prairies to the West. Here is a common one from our work in the Badlands of South Dakota.

A common genus out West, this genus does not really make it to the wet and lush East. This specimen we collected in the Badlands of South Dakota in the park of the same name. Clair Mudd took the shot.

Small Fuzzy Diadaasia diminuta. This little fur ball, is a globe mallow specialist. I am too tired after trying to beat back invasives all day in the yard to say any more. A lovely day though all the bees finally are emerging, including my first queen bumbles. The little poofs are from Badlands National Park in South Dakota.

Oh look, here is the female Diadasia rinconis. We featured the relatively fuzzy male recently and you can see that the branched pollen collecting hairs on this specimen have a few stray cactus pollen balls stuck in there. Such lovely bees really. Collected by Don Harvey. Someone in the lab took the picture BUT FORGOT TO FILL OUT THE SPREADSHEET, for the shots.

Oh look, here is the female Diadasia rinconis. We featured the relatively fuzzy male recently and you can see that the branched pollen collecting hairs on this specimen have a few stray cactus pollen balls stuck in there. Such lovely bees really. Collected by Don Harvey. Someone in the lab took the picture BUT FORGOT TO FILL OUT THE SPREADSHEET, for the shots.

Hiding in plain site. Is this Cellophane Bee... Colletes latitarsis is a bee that only feeds its babies pollen from the all american weed. Ground Cherry.... Physalis to you sciencey types. The thing about Physalis is that it is very shy about showing its sexual parts. The flowers dangle underneath its leafy roof and are this side of green for a yellow flower.

Hiding in plain site. Is this Cellophane Bee... Colletes latitarsis is a bee that only feeds its babies pollen from the all american weed. Ground Cherry.... Physalis to you sciencey types. The thing about Physalis is that it is very shy about showing its sexual parts. The flowers dangle underneath its leafy roof and are this side of green for a yellow flower.

Colletes nigrifrons, male, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The bee genus Colletes...also known as Cellophane Bees because of their habitat of lining their cells with a plastic like substance...is full of relatively uncommon bees that specialist on a the pollen of a small number of plants or groups of plants. This may be the case with C. phaceliae given its name...but I am not clear.