Images

A nest parasite of Megachile...probably of M. campanulae or M. exilis...this bee was collected at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in the marshlands of Dorchester County, Maryland. Photograph by Claire Mudd.

Three pictures of Stelis nasuta from the Grecian Islands, collected by Jelle Devalez who has the honor of studying and interpreting for us all the bee faunaof these islands. How nice for us all. The species lays its eggs in the nest of the Osmia species that we have illustrated previously. Just doing its job, nothing personal.

Three pictures of Stelis nasuta from the Grecian Islands, collected by Jelle Devalez who has the honor of studying and interpreting for us all the bee faunaof these islands. How nice for us all. The species lays its eggs in the nest of the Osmia species that we have illustrated previously. Just doing its job, nothing personal.

Pseudopanurgus rugosus, collected by the glorious State of Virginia Natural Heritage group. This whole group is a bit of a nightmare. Uncommon, tiny, often very similar looking and widely ignored by taxonomists. I often have to leave them as sp....or as we say 'spuh'.

Pseudoplusia includens, Bowie, Maryland

Putting up the last 2 in the sieres of this species.Pterocheilus quinquefasciatus. - Hunter of caterpillars...in this case, hunter of caterpillars in South Dakota Badlands.

If you were to plant one plant for watching bees in your garden it would be this one Pycnathemum muticum (Mountain Mint). If forms clumps about 2 feet tall, with a uniform spread of continuous blooms. So many wasps and bees come its absolutely fabulous.

Ranunculus species

Red maple, whole

Reticulitermes flavipes, Eastern Subterranean Termite, worker, Beltsville, Maryland, floating in hand sanitizer

Rhinocyllus conicus, the Eurasian flower head weevil, infests flower heads of Pitcher's thistle at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Its presence was first discovered in 2012. The weevil is a biocontrol agent for musk thistle, Carduus nutans. Picture by Wayne Boo.

Another Heather Campbell collected bee from the Sandhills, this one a nest parasite, likely on something in the genus Lasioglossum, a very small bee...Check out the WIPs in the wing (Wing Interference Patterns) quite lovely ....

Sphecodes davisii - Collected in the Adirondack Mountains as part of an expedition to the region in 2014. No Sphecodes gathers pollen. All Sphecodes are nest parasites. Laying their eggs in the nests of other species. Most are nest parasites of species in their family of Halictidae...but sometimes they dabble in other species.

Well, Sphecodes is a tough group to identify and we shouldn't have photographed it without getting a species ID, but ...it is a lovely to look at bee. Sierra Williams took the picture.

Beautiful, but scary. This is the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula). An impressive 2 inch exotic Fulgorid type thing from China and Southeast asia, it is a bark sucker and can do tremendous damage to smooth barked woody plants.

Unknown species of Treehopper collected in the Dominican Republic and suspended in Hand Sanitizer for this shot. The HS allows us to float the specimen how we like, but the high refraction index of HS means we loose a lot of surface detail due to loss of reflectivity. On the other hand it often adds a smoothing and saturation effect to the photo.

One of the very common Flower Chafers....They often fake me out when collecting bees on flowers as they fly amazingly well.

A rather dark and dangerous looking be from Chile. This is Trichothurgus aterimma what many specimens from Laurence Packer's collection up in New York University, Ontario. 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.

New species for the state of Maryland, this is Triepeolus concavus. As are all Triepeolus this one is a nest parasites. In this case, it's host is Svastra obliqua, an uncommon bee that loves large composites and is a good indication of high-quality habitat.

Triepeolus distinctus. This is the female of the male of the species that was posted a couple of weeks ago. Equally lovely. Both were found in an untended sand pit near my house. The key is untended as most sand pits not are filled with junk and the capped with clay and then planted with cool-season grasses and maybe some trees. The worst thing you could do.

Stelis subemarginata - An uncommon nest parasite of the genus Osmia. This one from Maine, where lots of Osmia hang out. Photo by Brooke Alexander.