Perhaps it is too late at night or that I am listening to Enyaesque music and nibbling on pure cacao, but I am transfixed by this particular bee and shot, it just calls up something ancient, something that really brings home the fact that our evolutionary paths separated long ago. We each conquered the world in our own way but these successful pathways seem so utterly and beautifully alien. There is no need to imagine or personify alternative life forms on other planets when the examples of such splendid architectures are right here.

Tags:   bug bugs bee bees pollinator pollinators animal animals Animalia Arthropod Arthropods Arthropoda Insect Insects Insecta Hymenoptera Aculeata Anthophila Apoidea Mining Bees Mining Bee Andrenidae biml usgs droege Calliopsis Calliopsis nebraskensis taxonomy:binomial=Calliopsis nebraskensis zerene stacker stackshot usgsbiml

© All Rights Reserved

Now this is a rare bee, I have never seen or collected this species before seeing this lovely male in Kassie Urban-Mead's collection of bees from Connecticut, she collected it last year in a field on Verbena, there are only a scattering of records from NJ to Connecticut representing a disjunct population from the populations occurring in the western prairies, perhaps a residue of times past when prairie like conditions occurred here too

Tags:   bug bugs bee bees pollinator pollinators animal animals Animalia Arthropod Arthropods Arthropoda Insect Insects Insecta Hymenoptera Aculeata Anthophila Apoidea Mining Bees Mining Bee Andrenidae biml usgs droege Calliopsis Calliopsis nebraskensis taxonomy:binomial=Calliopsis nebraskensis zerene stacker stackshot usgsbiml

© All Rights Reserved