Images

Eggs, Harlequin bug, Murgantia histrionica, a common pest of brassicas, these were raised by the Weber USDA lab at Beltsville, Maryland

Unknown species of what is presumably a Mutillid Velvet Ant. Because it has wings it is therefore a male. Collected at the NPS Fort Matanzas National Monument.

Mutillid Wasp, Male Velvet Ant, Prince George's County, Maryland

Ah, here is a good story, this is a shot of a female Nomada found at the museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard. I have visited their museum many times, but only this last time did I find a synoptic collection of bees from New England that was separate from the rest of their large, lovely, and old collection of bees.

Tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny. You can tell this from the size of the pin. What is size anyway. Clearly this is larger than a virus, let's say, but smaller than an elephant or bread box. But in the perspective of bees, this is really really small...because it is a nest parasite of Perdita which are the smallest of all the bees in North America.

St. Francis's Satyr (Neonympha mitchelli francisci). Only found in North Carolina and only found on Ft. Bragg. Feeds on grasses and sedges in wetlands along streams, most of those wetlands created by beaver and periodic fires from Base activities. These specimens came from captive reared populations that USFWS and others are attempting to slowly create.

St. Francis's Satyr (Neonympha mitchelli francisci). Only found in North Carolina and only found on Ft. Bragg. Feeds on grasses and sedges in wetlands along streams, most of those wetlands created by beaver and periodic fires from Base activities. These specimens came from captive reared populations that USFWS and others are attempting to slowly create.

Nomada texana, male, North Carolina, USFS Experiment Station

Nomia foxii. Check out the pearlescent bands on the abdomen. If you see something like that in North America it is going to be a bee in the genus Nomia. This is a western species. Captured in Hidalgo County, in NM by either Don Harvey or Tim McMahon our records are incomplete to the collector. Picture by Sydney Price.

From Kenya comes yet another Nomia with modifications to the basic bee format. You can see that like other Nomia this male has expanded leg segments, but the fabulous thing here are the dangling modified heart-shaped last segment of the antenna. Male bee antennae are modified quite frequently in the bee world, but this is one of the more extravagant.

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

carolina sandhills national wildlife refuge, South Carolina, male

A male Nomia from Thailand, note the corkscrewed antennae and the greatly expanded leg segments (presumably useful in mating at nest aggregations).

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

Badlands national Park, South Dakota

White boots on this, our darkest Eastern Melissodes. The most common species, found in gardens as well as parklands. Uses quite a range of plants compared to the more composite oriented other species. Photography by Kelly Graninger.

From the tip of Florida comes Melissodes communis. As a whole, Melissodes is almost always a composite specialist of some kind. This species is found very commonly throughout the South and this particular specimen comes from Biscayne National Park at the tip of Florida. Picture by Sierra Williams and Shopping by Elizabeth Garcia.

Melissodes communis, Biscayne National Park, Florida

Ironweed specialist. Well at least the female is a specialist in that she feeds here babies the bright white pollen of this group of plants. If you plant Ironweed in your garden Melissodes denticulatus will show up they are that common (ironweed is common too).

Range Jumper. This range jumper jumped from Illinois to Virginia. There are no records in between. How odd....this is a rare bee in its limited range in the Midwest and to find it all the way in the Mountains of Virginia seems near fantastical, but there it is and more than one specimen too.

A bee I often associate with Sandy areas...this one captured on Cape Cod National Seashore as part of comparative studies of dune loving bees.