Images

Parapsaenythia, Red Hairyeye Andrenid, collected in Argentina by Natalia VeigaBees rarely have hair coming out from between the facets of their eyes. The Honey Bee is the obvious one, with its long hairs used for navigation.

Manuelia postica, Red-tipped Twignester, collected in Chile Red-tipped Twignesters live and nest, as the name implies, in the pith or hollow centers of dead plant stems. A set of nest cells are made sequentially along the length of the stem from back to front.

Dark Flower Scarab (Euphoria sepulcralis) collected in Wicomico County in a glycol trap on a farm by Brooke Alexander and photoshopped by wonderful interns Joyce and Amber

Unknown species, Fossil Butte, Wyoming National Monument

Over the next few days I hope to put up some new Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) shots from bees collected at the many hives here at the Beltsville Agriculture Research Center maintained by bee whisperer Francisco Posada. In part we are focusing on the plumage differences, showing the variation between dark and light bodied individuals.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Captured by the butterfly convert Don Harvey in the wilds of Hidalgo County, New Mexico, here is the hunky Anthophora californica captured, as you can see from the pollen after servicing the local flowers. Thank you bees. Picture taken by Joaquin Mogollon.

One of the few species in the genus Anthophora with a strong pollen preference. Its almost solely found on Boraginaceae, especially Alkanna and Anchusa.

A wee little Anthophora. Meet Anthophora flexipes. I don't know much about this species since it lives out West where I don't live, but it is cute and it is an Anthophora. Collected way up the mountains from a burn study in Yosemite National Park by Claire Kremen's bee study group.

Very raggedy picture of Anthophora occidentalis from the Badlands of South Dakota

Introduced species from Japan...now found throughout the Washington D.C. area...very abundant and expected to spread.

Not all bumblebees gather pollen. Some, like this Bombus citrinus, take over the nests of other bumblebee species and use their workers to provision the nests of their young.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

Some bumble bees are parasites. A common theme in the bee world...to the tune of about 20% of all the species. Why go to all that work gathering pollen when you can just lay your egg in someone else's nest. Then in an evolutionary spy vs.

A parasite of other bumblebeeds, B. citrinus, is the most common parasitic species in the East, but, as a parasite this still means it is very uncommon. The tale is simple, this species invades a nest, eliminates queen, and makes workers raise its own young.