Images

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.

One of the most common bees in the East...if only we could figure out how to identify it more easily. Here we have Lasioglossum trigeminum. Fits right in with A. admirandum, A. versatum, and A. callidum and I often struggle with dark second thoughts about the specimens Id, because of all the overlap.

A common Carpenter Bee in Kruger National Park where they hang out in blooming trees (particularly legumes) once the trees start blooming with the austral spring rains. Looks a bit like the road stripers got a hold of her. Xylcopa caffra. Identified by Jonathan Mawdsley. Photo by Kelly Graninger.

A common Carpenter Bee in Kruger National Park where they hang out in blooming trees (particularly legumes) once the trees start blooming with the austral spring rains. Looks a bit like the road stripers got a hold of her. Xylcopa caffra. Identified by Jonathan Mawdsley. Photo by Kelly Graninger.

A common Carpenter Bee in Kruger National Park where they hang out in blooming trees (particularly legumes) once the trees start blooming with the austral spring rains. Looks a bit like the road stripers got a hold of her. Xylcopa caffra. Identified by Jonathan Mawdsley. Photo by Kelly Graninger.

Another bee from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is Xylocopa caffra...the male. Note how it is all yellow? Well the female is almost all black with some blocks of yellow on the abdomen. In a number of Carpenter bees on a number of continents this pattern repeats...while in other Carpenter bees the male and female are both dark.

Another bee from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is Xylocopa caffra...the male. Note how it is all yellow? Well the female is almost all black with some blocks of yellow on the abdomen. In a number of Carpenter bees on a number of continents this pattern repeats...while in other Carpenter bees the male and female are both dark.

Another bee from Kruger National Park in South Africa. This is Xylocopa caffra...the male. Note how it is all yellow? Well the female is almost all black with some blocks of yellow on the abdomen. In a number of Carpenter bees on a number of continents this pattern repeats...while in other Carpenter bees the male and female are both dark.

A December view of the Nebraska Sandhils - the largest uncultivated grassland in the North America.  This is one of the control sampling localities for the project on effects of crop production on prairie grouse microbiome. 

One of our frequent visitors at the Conte Lab: a juvenile bald eagle over the Turners Falls power canal. The canal provides the lab with water for fish rearing and flumes, and provides sustenance for eagles and osprey, minks and otters.

Histology laboratory with microtoming area to the left.  Microtoming is when tissues are cut into very thin slices and placed on glass slides prior to being stained and coveslipped.  In the center is the incubator where slides are dried when needed.

Histology laboratory with coverslipping area to the left.  Coverslipping is when tissues cross-sections that are dried onto slides are coverslipped with a thin piece of glass.  In the center is the file/record keeping area where every sample was logged and given a study number.

Kirby on a beach in Iceland, Nov 2019                                          

USGS Eastern Ecological Science Center - Kearneysville, WV campus           

Kirby on a beach in Iceland, Nov 2019                              

Two USGS scientist implant a radio tag in a sedated brown trout as a Deerfield River Watershed Chapter of Trout Unlimited volunteer looks on

When Brown Pelican hatch they are small, featherless and helpless. These birds can grow from tiny nestlings to flighted juveniles in 12 weeks.

Melissa Roach, biologist with the Patuxent Bird Banding Lab, bands a pelican chick on Smith Island in the Chesapeake Bay.

Immature oocytes within the testicular tissue of a smallmouth bass.  The histological or cellular appearance of an intersex smallmouth bass. Immature oocytes (white arrows) are present within the testicular tissue which also contains mature sperm (yellow arrows).