Images

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

The mysterious Stelis nitida. Dark, broody, enters the nests of other bees, lays its eggs, and then the hosts young mysteriously die with all their food eaten. This one from Isle Royale National Park. An island more like Canada than the U.S. in its bee fauna. Photo by Sara Guerierri.

Stelis subemarginata - An uncommon nest parasite of the genus Osmia. This one from Maine, where lots of Osmia hang out. Photo by Brooke Alexander.

More slime mold action from the Adirondacks...in this case a miniforest of Stemonitis sporangia corn dogs emerging from a rotting log after some good all day rain action. What if we just did a 3D print of these bad boys and made them 100 feet tall and put them in the middle of the Hudson?

Australia warning. This extremely fast flying sand nesting bee is only found in Australia, in fact, the genus is only found in Australia, and...the family Stenotritidae (27 species) is only found in Australia. The smallest of the 7 families of bees known to mankind. Collected by the peripatetic uber bee taxonomist Laurence Packer.

Melapona species (likely Melipona eburnean, but this needs to be verified by sam) , La Legítima, specimen collected by German Perilla in PeruHoney is not the singular creation of Honey Bees, but other, even older lines of bees have been creating honey to get through hard times for tens of millions of years.

Spodoptera eridania - Southern armyworm. A pest in southern parts of the U.S. mostly Florida. Defoliator of tomatoes and other crops. Not a candidate for the insect Miss Universe contest...or is is? I think close up there is a lot of beauty in this series of life history shots, but that is my personal opinion.

Reviled crop pest intrinsically valueless or eternal marvel of unworldly craft and resonance. 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.

Unknown Sphecidae Wasp, Anne Arundel County, Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge, Maryland, July 2012

Headless Bee. This is the tiny Sphecodes antennariae. The smallest, I believe, Sphecodes in the MidAtlantic. The head fell off somewhere between selection for photographing and photographing. One slighly unusual feature of this nest parasite (likely of Lasioglossum) is that it only has 2 rather than 3 submarginal cells...most of the time.

More Sphecodes from the Adirondack Mountains of New York. There are many species of Sphecodes. They look remarkably the same. Females, like this one, inevitably have red butts and the rest about small sculptural differences.

Sphecodes davisii - Collected in the Adirondack Mountains as part of an expedition to the region in 2014. No Sphecodes gathers pollen. All Sphecodes are nest parasites. Laying their eggs in the nests of other species. Most are nest parasites of species in their family of Halictidae...but sometimes they dabble in other species.

Red Butts. Red abdomens are not super common in the bee world BUT (so to speak) many of those with red abdomens are parasitic members of Sphecodes (fattigi in this picture) or Nomada in North America. On other continents, its other groups. This come from Fort A.P Hill, collected by Ellison Orcutt and company from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Red Butts. Red abdomens are not super common in the bee world BUT (so to speak) many of those with red abdomens are parasitic members of Sphecodes (fattigi in this picture) or Nomada in North America. On other continents, its other groups. This come from Fort A.P Hill, collected by Ellison Orcutt and company from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

A species of Sphecodes captured in agriculture areas of Puerto Rico by Sara Prado. This is either a new island record or a new species as there are no known records for Sphecodes for the island. Notice the lovely WIPs (Wing Interference Patterns)

An odd story of invasion. This is a Sphecodes, we have posted a series of them recently on Flickr. They are nest parasites. They gather no pollen themselves. There are many species...the odd thing is that I found this on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. The only native bees on the island (discounting some maybe native bees) are masked bee from the genus Hylaeus.

An unknown species of Sphecodes collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County. Interesting to ask why Sphecodes often have bring red abdomens when bees theoretically can't see red. Photographed by Brooke Alexander

Sphecodes species, female

Unknown species of small spider , possibly a juvenile? Beltsville, Maryland, March 2014Canon 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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

An orphan picture. Other than it is a spider wasp and came from the county I work in I don't know much more about this azure beauty. It was taken when we were first setting up the camera rig in 2012....so likely just fell between the cracks.