Images

White Oak, Insect damage, August 2012, Beltsville, Maryland

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Female June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Calopteryx maculata, Ebony Jewelwing, Beltsville, Maryland Stream, Male June 2013

Everyone's favorite native plant, the purple coneflower, pretty decent for pollinators, but not nearly as good as some other less sexy flowering plants. Specimen and picture by Helen Low Metzman.

Everyone's favorite native plant, the purple coneflower, pretty decent for pollinators, but not nearly as good as some other less sexy flowering plants. Specimen and picture by Helen Low Metzman.

Echinocactus polycephalus - Cotton Top Cactus seed, Lovely surface sculpturing despite the cracks from being crushed in the mail. Seed supplied by Desert Botanical Garden.

Cactus seed supplied by the Desert Botanical GardenCanon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200, link to a .pdf of our set up is located in our profile

A lovely stinkbug found in my house trying to pretend it was a Brown Marmorated Stinkbug, but instead it is a primarily southern species native to the region. Stinkbugs are so cool.

The first set in a long series of pictures to come out of a visit to Laurence Packer's lab, where we are picking out all sorts of lovely world wide bees to photograph. This dandy (yes it is tomato colored) is common in the temperate areas of Chile and Argentina, this bad girl is from Chile.

The first set in a long series of pictures to come out of a visit to Laurence Packer's lab, where we are picking out all sorts of lovely world wide bees to photograph. This dandy (yes it is tomato colored) is common in the temperate areas of Chile and Argentina, this bad girl is from Chile.

The first set in a long series of pictures to come out of a visit to Laurence Packer's lab, where we are picking out all sorts of lovely world wide bees to photograph. This dandy (yes it is tomato colored) is common in the temperate areas of Chile and Argentina, this bad girl is from Chile.

The first set in a long series of pictures to come out of a visit to Laurence Packer's lab, where we are picking out all sorts of lovely world wide bees to photograph. This dandy (yes it is tomato colored) is common in the temperate areas of Chile and Argentina, this bad girl is from Chile.

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.

Elephantopus carolinianus - One of the elephant's foot group. I heard that it can be a good pollinator plant, but don't, as of yet, have much in the way of experience these. Photo and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Elephantopus carolinianus - One of the elephant's foot group. I heard that it can be a good pollinator plant, but don't, as of yet, have much in the way of experience these. Photo and specimen by Helen Lowe Metzman.

Not all orchid bees are entirely metallic green. Here is one from a rather uncommon genus, collected, in interior Guyana rainforest that illustrates the beauty of combining black and metallics...