Images

More worker honey bee shots from USDA honey bee specimens. These are both in the light body format and were collected in Beltsville, Maryland by Francisco Posada from the National Honey Bee Lab.

Queen Bee photo spread. Collected by Tim McMahon from a colony in Talbot County, while slightly gummy as Honeybees are want to be, this series shows the longer abdomen, the odd curly dark hairs on top of the head and the broad hind tibia, but lacking the hairs and pollen basket that the workers have.

Queen Bee photo spread. Collected by Tim McMahon from a colony in Talbot County, while slightly gummy as Honeybees are want to be, this series shows the longer abdomen, the odd curly dark hairs on top of the head and the broad hind tibia, but lacking the hairs and pollen basket that the workers have.

Wild Sarsaparilla, Aralia nudicaulis. Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Devil's Walking Stick - Aralia spinosa. Woof. Plant this at the edge of the woods. The individual stems often don't last more than a few years, but what a spectacular plant. Giant giant balls of white flowers that attract huge numbers of wasps and butterflies, and some bees for that matter.

Paraguay! Cactus! This species and its kin feed their young Cactus pollen. One of many species which are pollen specialists in the world. Much to discover and explore in the part of the world, particularly the Chaco region.

Black Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa. Consider the chokeberry....native and super full of antioxidants, also super attractive to native bees. Why don't you have any in your yard? Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Oak Timberworm, Arrhenodes minutus, and an interesting mite on its mid femur, found at my moth light...likely attracted to the area due to the fresh red oak I am adding to the wood pile. Note the odd mite appears to be glued to the femur, it was still alive when the picture was taken, but apparently could not leave its host.

Asarum canadense - Wild Ginger. The deep purple/maroon on this bulky little flower tells you that it aims to attract beetles and flies rather than bees. Check out the fine textures to the flower body. To what evolutionary end to the small projects and long white hairs make? Picture and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Common Milkweed - The primary foodplant in most of the range of the loved-by-all Monarch Butterfly . Also a weed, if you are a wheat farmer, and also something much less common in agricultural landscapes where they dominated in the past. Why? Because we figured out how to create food plants that cannot be killed by herbicides.

Orange in Saturation. No need for Photoshop filters here. This is the orange orange of butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, a magnet for bees and butterflies, but provider only of nectar. Its visitors transfer butterfly weed pollen in sacs that get clipped onto the legs of big visitors when their foot slips into the florets.

Butterfly Weed. The orange trickster. Providing nectar, but instead of edible pollen for a nice bee to eat. Wham. it locks packets of pollen onto the legs of a bee or butterfly and if the bee is strong enough it pulls free to possibly fly off to maybe or maybe not insert those pollinia into another butterfly weed plant.

Orange in Saturation. No need for Photoshop filters here. This is the orange orange of butterfly weed, Asclepias tuberosa, a magnet for bees and butterflies, but provider only of nectar. Its visitors transfer butterfly weed pollen in sacs that get clipped onto the legs of big visitors when their foot slips into the florets.

Another small Ashmeadiella species (A. aridula) again from Claire Kremen's studies. This one's distributions fills the western states but does not leak into Canada and Mexico. I am sure there are stories to tell here, but I basically know that they are small and nest in holes in wood...often using rosin. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

Another small Ashmeadiella species (A. aridula) again from Claire Kremen's studies. This one's distributions fills the western states but does not leak into Canada and Mexico. I am sure there are stories to tell here, but I basically know that they are small and nest in holes in wood...often using rosin. Photos by Erick Hernandez.

Here is a bee from the Central Valley of California,part of Claire Kremen's 10 years study of hedgerows as bee repositories in industrial ag lands. Pollen-wise it leans towards composites, and, this is also a bee that can be found all the way to the East Coast... Georgia and North Carolina even. Small so likely often overlooked.

Here is a bee from the Central Valley of California,part of Claire Kremen's 10 years study of hedgerows as bee repositories in industrial ag lands. Pollen-wise it leans towards composites, and, this is also a bee that can be found all the way to the East Coast... Georgia and North Carolina even. Small so likely often overlooked.

Laphria posticata. A lot going on here, at least for me, first there is a wonderful aesthetic contrast between the mounds of black clay and the robber fly; the crispness of the angled wings and the just imperfectness of the bilateral symmetry combined with the mirroring of the yellow hairs on the thorax in opposition to those of the abdomen.

Laphria species, a Robber Fly that mimics bees. They sit around waiting for a passing fly, attach, and then suck it dry. You should appreciate the fact that this species is measured in mm, Captured by Tim McMahon and photographed by Wayne Boo

Here is the Crystal Skipper, (Atrytonopsis quinteri) sent to me by Heather Cayton, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina where its entire range is but 2 barrier islands (one highly developed) where its caterpillars mildly munch on seaside little bluestem.

Here is the Crystal Skipper, (Atrytonopsis quinteri) sent to me by Heather Cayton, from the Outer Banks of North Carolina where its entire range is but 2 barrier islands (one highly developed) where its caterpillars mildly munch on seaside little bluestem.