Images

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.

This little beauty is the underside of Argyrogrammana nurtia from Peru, one of the metalmarks. This one collected by Brian Harris at the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian. So fine.

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.

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.

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.

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.

OK, maybe not the best picture, but this is Anthophora terminalis. The females, as you see here, have a red tip to the abdomen (technically: the bee's butt). Small than other Anthophora (at least in the Eastern U.S.) and different in that they do not nest in dirt banks or the ground like their big cousins, but in plant stems.

Anthophora terminalis, collected in Morris Arboretum by Stephanie Wilson and photoshopped by Ann Simpkins

Anthophora terminalis, collected in Morris Arboretum by Stephanie Wilson and photoshopped by Ann Simpkins

Anthophora terminalis, collected in Morris Arboretum by Stephanie Wilson and photoshopped by Ann Simpkins

OK, maybe not the best picture, but this is Anthophora terminalis. The females, as you see here, have a red tip to the abdomen (technically: the bee's butt). Small than other Anthophora (at least in the Eastern U.S.) and different in that they do not nest in dirt banks or the ground like their big cousins, but in plant stems.

OK, maybe not the best picture, but this is Anthophora terminalis. The females, as you see here, have a red tip to the abdomen (technically: the bee's butt). Small than other Anthophora (at least in the Eastern U.S.) and different in that they do not nest in dirt banks or the ground like their big cousins, but in plant stems.

Here is a series of males and females of Anthophora urbana from Yolo County, California. This bee was collected in the California Central Valley in Yolo County for research on small-scale restoration in agricultural areas. Claire Kremen's 10-year study of hedgerows shows the benefits of planting native shrubs and forbs in agricultural areas for native bees.

We go, once again, to one of my favorite parts of the world, the Badlands of South Dakota. Among several types of Anthophora exists a nicely woke-up white banded species called Anthophora walshii. This species has an interesting distribution, it is almost entirely found in the prairies bumping up to the western mountain ranges.

We go, once again, to one of my favorite parts of the world, the Badlands of South Dakota. Among several types of Anthophora exists a nicely woke-up white banded species called Anthophora walshii. This species has an interesting distribution, it is almost entirely found in the prairies bumping up to the western mountain ranges.

Anthophora abrupta, female, May, 2012, Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge

Well, not so great looking a bee specimen, so it goes sometimes when doing bee surveys where thousands of specimens are processed quickly under less than ideal conditions. However, there is a nice little story here. This bee was found by the National Park Service survey team George Washington's Home in Virginia.

The lovely groundnut, Apios americana. Has both edible beans and edible tubers and attempts have been made to create cultivars, but sadly this has not caught on despite some pretty awesome healthful characteristics. Look up the wikipedia writeup pilgrim. Photographed and collected by Helen Lowe Metzman in Howard County, Maryland.