Images

This is the last and final shot of the lovely vespid from Park County, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. A wonderful pallet of colors. Photoshoping by Dejen Mengis. 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.

Part of the spring flush of woodland blooming shrubs. Bees do visit this group, but in my neck of the woods in the Mid-Atlantic there is not much to see despite the massive bloom in terms of visitors. Some much energy to make all that bloom...the plants can be covered...but so few pollinators...what's up with that? Specimen and pictures by Helen Low Metzman.

Black Haw - A lovely name for a plant or and estate. A native medicinal plant, here with its buds coming out in the spring. Plant collected in Howard County, Maryland by Helen Lowe Metzman and she did the photography as well.

Part of the spring flush of woodland blooming shrubs. Bees do visit this group, but in my neck of the woods in the Mid-Atlantic there is not much to see despite the massive bloom in terms of visitors. Some much energy to make all that bloom...the plants can be covered...but so few pollinators...what's up with that? Specimen and pictures by Helen Low Metzman.

Vitis...grapes, one of the wild species in Maryland. Species unknown at this time. Note that bees have little interest in grapes, most, if not all, grapes are self-fertilized so one rarely sees bee visitors here. Picture and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland.

A very very variable in color (polymorphic) species in the stinkbug family from South America. I have a couple of other examples, but there seems to be no limit to the color variations this species has. How lovely and mysterious. Not sure what the research is on this thing, but it must be an interesting story.

One of the southern Svastra species. Big Bee, uncommon and probably restricted to areas of relatively intact native flora, which are getting to be harder and harder to find.

Large bees, rivaling bumblebees, the presence of these bees are indicators of high quality natural habitats, this group does not do well in human environments and does not invade urban areas.

Svastra, a good name I think for this moody genus, I am not sure of the derivation, but these are large, mostly uncommon bees that inhabit high quality diverse open bioscapes. They do not occur in cities. This species is especially dark and is at the southern edge of its range at Canaveral National Seashore in Florida.

While most people would not necessarily think about this very much (beer, for example, is thought about a lot more), many bees are specialists on Cacti. Here is Svastra duplocincta collected in Pima County, Arizona...very likely on a cactus by either Tim McMahon or Don Harvey (my notes are not with me).

Found on Eastern Neck Island National Wildlife Refuge in their lovely lovely native plant garden and fields. This large Eucerine bee is a good indicator of high quality habitat. May we see them in more than places with this bee.

Another shot of the Composite loving Svastra obliqua from Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. Photographs by Hannah and Ashleigh. 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.

A lovely Deep South Svastra, S. petulca to be specific. A nice pollen shot. You can see the huge bushy pollen carrying hairs on its hind legs, designed to carry dry pollen unlike Honey Bees and Bumble Bees which mix their pollen with nectar.

Sawfly, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

An unknown Horsefly from Upper Marlboro, MD

Cuba, GTMO, Guatntanamo Bay Naval Base

Collected , in Glycol trap, Tarpela micans, with lovely oil can sheen, identified by Warren Steiner

Tarsalia persica, Persian Asymmetric bee, collected in Iran. 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.

Spectacular in its glittering blue hairs, this humpbacked bee is another nest parasite, in this case it lays its eggs in the nests of Blue-banded bees (Amegilla). This particular baby was collected in the Philippines by C.F. Baker in the early part of the last century.

Thanks to Bill Hubick and Cathy Stragar for this identification, this cicada was lounging around my moth light in the coastal plain of Maryland a bit before 5 a.m. a few days ago. Thanks.

thanks to Bill Hubic and Cathy Stragar for this identification 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.