Images

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Once of our dirtball species. Common, found almost everywhere including people's gardens and in our agricultural fields. This is group (Halictus) if often identifiable in the males by the the dark spot/section on the outer face of the hind tibia.

Once of our dirtball species. Common, found almost everywhere including people's gardens and in our agricultural fields. This is group (Halictus) if often identifiable in the males by the the dark spot/section on the outer face of the hind tibia.

Bees of Bryce Canyon...yep, plenty of different kinds of bees in this National Park including this darling but drab Halictus farinosus. Photography by Brooke Alexander. 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.

Gynandromorph. Park male. Part Female. Intersex. We run into these periodically. Maybe something like once every 25,000 specimens or so. This one is Halictus ligatus and was collected by Sara Bushman from Maine as part of her studies of coastal bees. This specimen is a hodge-podge of male and femaleness.

Halictus ligatus. One of the crow bees of the North America. It occurs almost everywhere and remains common in urban and disturbed sites, where it is just fine with gathering pollen from alien weeds and flower beds.

A relatively new invader to North America. Unlike most of the other invasive bees, this is a ground nester, most of the others nest in holes and likely come over as nest stowaways in shipping containers and dunnage.

They don't call them long-horned bees for nothing' ... This is the male of an obscure Eucerine, captured in a lovely residual Long-leaf managed forest with much of its original flora...and much of its original bee fauna too... collected by Sabrie Breland from Ichuaway, Georgia near the Florida Border.

A nicely arrayed longhorned bee from southern Georgia. It is rare that we get to see a bee so nicely laid out. Of the tens of thousands of these that we process each year most are hair-matted, covered in pollen or dirt, have crumpled wings, and are nowhere near this symmetrical. What a delight.Collected by Sabrie Breland in cool whispering Pines of the lowlands.

Collected by Dave Gruenewald from Emory in the southern piney forests of Georgia, where he is studying forestry regeneration impacts on native bees. This is a rare species, located only in the deep south along the coastal plain, perhaps it is not so rare as we think, but that so few people collect and study bees in this area.

Very orange and fluffy he is. And very uncommonly found. This was a nice bee to see from Sabrie Breland's captures in old long-leaf pine forests in Southern Georgia. Fulvohirta indeed. Pictures taken by Sara Guerrieri.

Collected by Dave Gruenewald from Emory in the southern piney forests of Georgia, where he is studying forestry regeneration impacts on native bees. This is a rare species, located only in the deep south along the coastal plain, perhaps it is not so rare as we think, but that so few people collect and study bees in this area.

Eucera rosae a rather uncommon spring bee in same group as the more abundant Melissodes species. This one came from the Saint Mary's City area of Southern Maryland collected by Elaine Szymkowiak.

Experiment...this specimne was placed in a humidor with household ammonia to darken the eyes...you can compare to the previous pictures...it worked to some extent, but by no means repaired the lightened areas....Eucera rosae a rather uncommon spring bee in same group as the more abundant Melissodes species.

Not all orchid bees are entirely metallic green. Here is one from a rather uncommon genus, collected, in interior Guyana rainforest that illustrates the beauty of combining black and metallics...

Euryglossina leyburnensis, Cylidrical Perplexing Bee, collected in AustraliaDoes this look like a bee? Not really, and indeed the Cylindrical Perplexing Bee has fooled many a melittologist (the self-proclaimed name for those of us who instead of becoming plumbers or presidents took up the study of bees). Why does it look so different?

Big, Big, Big, In all its black-winged metallic glory...this species is larger than any bee north of Mexico, we trekked 2 days into the jungles of Guyana to find it. This species, and the genus as a whole, is a nest parasite on other equally large canopy dwelling Orchid Bees.

Dominican Republic

Wyoming, Fossil Butte National Monument. Identification please

Experiment: Ah, what a difference fresh specimens make, having retained their color, and a tweak of the technique, this just about ready to emerge mosquito pupae expired within 15 minutes or so of its picture being taken.