Images

Perdita bishoppi, Florida, Fort Matanzas National Monument, male

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

This is a little tiny stalactite that grey in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. This is an experimental shot from some material given to me by the Geology Division at USGS. Right now just playing around with light set ups and photoshopping...comments welcome. Photograph by Brooke Alexender.

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

Nest parasite, yup, this is a bee, but one that invades the nests of leaf-cutting bees in the genus Megachile. This smart looking male was collected by bee girl Sabrie Breland in South Georgia near the Florida Border. Picture was taken by Brooke Alexander.

Not awesome pictures, but sometimes we need to take pictures of very rare specimens not because they are beautiful in aspect but because they are all we have. Stelis foederalis is a rare nest parasite of presumably Osmia species. These were found on Isle Royale wayyyyy up in Lake Superior closer to Canada than Michigan.

Not awesome pictures, but sometimes we need to take pictures of very rare specimens not because they are beautiful in aspect but because they are all we have. Stelis foederalis is a rare nest parasite of presumably Osmia species. These were found on Isle Royale wayyyyy up in Lake Superior closer to Canada than Michigan.

Stelis labiata "“ A male of a very rare species found, in this case in the sandhills of North Carolina, collected by Heather Campbell Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200

Stelis lateralis - A nest parasite of Osmia...often seemingly associated with O. pumila. This one was found in the New York City area in Gateway National Recreation Area. Photographed by Kamren Jefferson and photo shopped by Elizabeth Garcia.

Stelis louisae, Prince George's county Maryland

Stelis louisae, Prince George's county Maryland

Some of the Stelis groups of bees are very colorful. This is true of S. louisae....a nest parasite of Megachile campanulae and clan. This male was collected on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the mostly marsh county of Dorchester. Photograph by Claire Mudd.

Three pictures of Stelis nasuta from the Grecian Islands, collected by Jelle Devalez who has the honor of studying and interpreting for us all the bee faunaof these islands. How nice for us all. The species lays its eggs in the nest of the Osmia species that we have illustrated previously. Just doing its job, nothing personal.

a new species record for Maryland collected by Richard Orr in the Catoctin Mountains. We will be looking into it over the next few weeks.

Woof. Not great pictures of a bit of beat up bee, but it is a rare bee and I think the only one I have ever gotten. In this case these came from Shelby Wilson who did surveys of bees on Isle Royale in Lake Superior. A very cool place. Very canadian in bee aspect.

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

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.

Experiment: This specimen has previously been photographed and uploaded to our account. The difference is that I have cleaned the specimen by rehydrating it overnight floating on foam in a tupper ware container of water and then vigorously washing it in hot soapy water by dunking the specimen on the pin into another plastic container and shaking.

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.