Images

Just a white oak leaf bud from several years ago. Botanists, at some point, realized that many plants go through a period of time where they have no leaves. So, being clever (and having no leaves to look at) they have devised alternative strategies to identifying plants using things like buds, leaf scars, patterns of pith, color of bark, and so forth.

Peromyscus leucopus, the white-footed mouse, this one dead from one of the many traps in our lab, where we fear the number of bees one mouse can eat in a day. Photo by Hannah Sutton.

A couple more prickly ash photos taken by Helen Low Metzman.

Xenoglossa strenua. People who know something about native bees often know about the "Squash Bee" Peponapis pruinosa. However, there are other native squash bees, and here is one. This is Xenoglossa strenua.

Xenoglossa strenua. People who know something about native bees often know about the "Squash Bee" Peponapis pruinosa. However, there are other native squash bees, and here is one. This is Xenoglossa strenua.

A lovely dark Xylocopa from Kyrgyzstan with shimmering dark iridescence of wing and abdomen. 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.

Of all the pictures I took up at Laurence's this is by far my favorite. I love the geometry, the complementary colors, the contrast between the texture of the abdomen and the texture of the wing, and just the lushness of the whole thing. Here we have a Xylocopa from Kyrgyzstan to thank.

A lovely yellow yellow yellow Carpenter Bee from India. The brown wings and yellow hairs show extremely good taste. From the Packer Lab 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.

More slime mold action from the Adirondacks...in this case a miniforest of Stemonitis sporangia corn dogs emerging from a rotting log after some good all day rain action. What if we just did a 3D print of these bad boys and made them 100 feet tall and put them in the middle of the Hudson?

Experimental Shot. One of the problems with macro photography is that sometimes your subject is too big. In this case this lovely very large scarab beetle would not fit in the field of view of my MPE65. I could switch to a 100mm lens but I would then lose a lot of lovely detail.

Sergiolus capulatus found by Wayne Boo in the lab....and identified by Lady Arachnophile, found in Beltsville, MD

Blarina brevicauda - the short -tailed shrew. This one found dead in the yard in Upper Marlboro, MD. 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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Blarina brevicauda - the short -tailed shrew. This one found dead in the yard in Upper Marlboro, MD. 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, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

Unknown land snail from Biscayne National Park, Florida approximately 6mm across

Carolina Wren - Thryothorus ludovicianus. A common co-inhabitant with human nests. In this case a Wren made a nest in a tub of rags we had outside under a shed roof. We watched it for a while, but then found the tub also had a Black Rat Snake and the nest was mysteriously abandoned.

A black and white version of the previous picture...can't decide if I should have left that straying barb on the left in there or not...it adds a lot of tension to the picture...perhaps too much.

One of the relatively few fall Andrena bees (most occur on spring wildflowers). This dark species is associated with Goldenrods and Asters...but then again, that is the main nectar and pollen source of the Fall. They also have a tendency to show up in sandy areas and, indeed, this specimen is from the Carolina Sandhills collected by Heather Campbell.

Andrena nuda, Somerset County, Maryland, April 2012, female

Andrena species, Black-tipped Andrena, specimen collected by Jason Gibbs in OmanEvolution has blessed the genus Andrena with over 1500 different species, making it the second richest of all bee genera (Hairy-tongue Bees, Lasioglossum, are first).

Andrena perplexa - This is a male from Talbot County, Maryland, long thin mandibles, wide cheeks and a big for an Andrena. Common in woodland areas, like so many of the Andrena. 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.

Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 200mm Pentax-m with Nikon 10X infinity microscope objective lens mounted on front , Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.6, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200.USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos