Images

Tiny. One would want this in your woodland rock garden. Dwarf Ginseng, Panax trifolius. Specimen and picture by Helen Lowe Metzman. 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.

An Uncommon (or is it?) Deerberry specialist. If you don't collect bees on Deerberry (Vaccinium staminium) you will never see this bee (Panurginus atramontensis). It only gathers pollen and probably almost all of its nectar from this plant.

An Uncommon (or is it?) Deerberry specialist. If you don't collect bees on Deerberry (Vaccinium staminium) you will never see this bee (Panurginus atramontensis). It only gathers pollen and probably almost all of its nectar from this plant.

An Uncommon (or is it?) Deerberry specialist. If you don't collect bees on Deerberry (Vaccinium staminium) you will never see this bee (Panurginus atramontensis). It only gathers pollen and probably almost all of its nectar from this plant.

From the northern hemisphere comes ... Panurginus. A common group of largely dark little bees, with the males, at times having yellow on their faces, in keeping with the general pattern of males having more yellow than females.

From the northern hemisphere comes ... Panurginus. A common group of largely dark little bees, with the males, at times having yellow on their faces, in keeping with the general pattern of males having more yellow than females.

A tiny tiny bee, a specialist on Potentilla or Cinquefoil plants in North America. This one came from a colony I discovered in a dirt patch right in the front lawn of our laboratory. These sorts of bare dirt / clay / sand areas are often great bee nesting sites.

Undescribed Panurginus Species from Badlands National Park

Paracolletes species, On and Off Bee, specimen collected in AustraliaThis species is unusually sexually dimorphic in color. The males are quite bright, as can be seen here, the females are what might be called the "null hypothesis" for bee coloration "“ brownish grey on the head and thorax with a black abdomen with white transverse hair bands.

A little flower fly from the Badlands of South Dakota, this one was part of a study led by Diane Larson looking at the web of pollinators on some of the rare plant communities found in the gumbo soils of Badlands National Park. An interesting species found in North America, Europe, and Africa.

This is the lovely female of the male previously illustrated. A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integument.

This is the lovely female of the male previously illustrated. A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integument.

A nest parasite from the dry regions of Mexico and the Southwestern United States, this group infiltrates the communal nests of Exomalopsis to lay their eggs in the nest cells being built. Lovely combination of plush hair bands and shiny integument.

Why do you insist, Pilgrim, on planting your garden with geraniums, tea roses, and begonias? You could be planting your garden to Woodlands sunflowers and then you would have the opportunity to help out the uncommon and undoubtedly declining Paranthidium jugatorium.

Paranthidium jugatorium, male July 2012, Allegany County, First State record.

Mark Hepner collected this Puppy in West Virginia. This lovely yellow and black species (a common pattern out there in the bee world) is one of those specialist bees that lives in its own little neighborhood. That neighborhood for Paranthidium jugatorium is the world provided by Woodland Sunflowers...but only in the East, which means it is an Appalachian species.

Pararhophites orobinus, Yellow Pollen Ball Bee, collected in Uzbekistan by Christophe Praz. This interesting little bee belongs to a genus of just three species from North Africa through Central Asia. They continue to confuse bee experts because of uncertainties about where they fit in the classificatory scheme. This is a work in progress.

Pararhophites orobinus, Yellow Pollen Ball Bee, collected in Uzbekistan by Christophe Praz. This interesting little bee belongs to a genus of just three species from North Africa through Central Asia. They continue to confuse bee experts because of uncertainties about where they fit in the classificatory scheme. This is a work in progress.

Pararhophites orobinus, Yellow Pollen Ball Bee, collected in Uzbekistan by Christophe Praz. This interesting little bee belongs to a genus of just three species from North Africa through Central Asia. They continue to confuse bee experts because of uncertainties about where they fit in the classificatory scheme. This is a work in progress.

Feeds Baby Oil. Yes, a subcult of the many bees of the world are those who, in addition to feeding their young pollen, feed them oil from plants that produce oil for that very purpose. Here is such a bee, a Paratetrapedia collected by Tim McMahon in Costa Rica. It has special hairs to transport the oil to the nest.

The subtle and calmness that is the speckled sharpshooter, captured in grass in Upper Marlboro, MD