Images

Beggar's-Ticks of the Nodding variety. Showy, and, at times, filling ditches in low areas of Maryland. One of the native plants that seems to be happy with disturbed environments and they come with barbed seeds that stick to the coats of animals and the coats of people with equal vigor. Lots of yellow in the fall...beautiful.

Here is a lovely black and red seed. Photographed on the cut tip of a pin. Sadly, I do not have a record of the seed's name, so any help with this distinct specimen would be appreciated. This seed came from a 100 year old collection of seeds used as reference by the old Bureau of Biological Survey.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Agrotis ipsilon - Black Cutworm - Another major crop pest. This species moves into northern parts of North America after overwintering in Texas and Mexico and then pulls off a couple of generations in weedy fields and particularly impacting newly planted corn. Yet another pest that looks rather beautiful when viewed up close.

Black-throated blue warbler, female, collided with a building in Washington D.C. , experimental photo of a stack of 16 pictures....feather detail came out very well, but thumb is pixilly....hard to hold that still that long

Birds regularly collide with buildings. In many instances building collisions can be decreased by turning lights off at night and using non-reflective glass. Sadly both these measures rarely happen. In major cities groups pick up birds that have struck buildings, here is a set of "blue" birds that hit buildings in Downtown Washington D.C.

Compact small bee want to meet compact small flowers. Anthophora flexipes is definitely cute, though, of course, we can let that shade its importance as a pollinator in the high lands of Yosemite National Park.

Now the back of the previous specimen, note the strong white/cream bands on the abdomen, one related group of Anthophora have these integument bands while the other species the integument is entirely black....tricky to photograph as it quickly burns the detail in the white.Note the tattered wings...this male was getting old...This bee was collected as part of a surv

This bee was collected as part of a survey of Rocky Mountain National Park. The size of a bumblebee, but has all those cream colored markings on its face that Bumblebees never have. A male in this case.

Third in the series, you can see the characters in the forewing that make this an Anthophora....the lack of hair in the interior of the wing cells and the regularly spaced little pappilate mounds with a hair sticking out of them outside of those cells.

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

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

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

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Female, Anthophora plumipes, introduced into Maryland from Japan in the 1980s...and now common in the DC region. Likely to be split from A. plumipes back to an earlier synonym A. pilipes due to recent molecular work