Insects of 2014: Hymenoptera

Well this order is definitely my favorite, so I've saved the best for last. Hymenoptera include ants, wasps, and my study group, bees!

These ants are eating crumbs from a 4th of July picnic. Some of them bit us, forcing us to move on. You can see two casts, a soldier and several workers.

Though called red velvet ant, this is actually a flightless female wasp in the family Mutillidae. Dasymutilla occidentalis invades the nest of bumblebees and parasitizes them. The females sting is incredibly painful, leading to the wasps other common name - cow killer

These are pictures of a Blue winged digger wasp Scolia dubia. One of their favorite prey is Japanese beetles. They fly in a pattern low above the grass in a courtship display. The female digs down in search of a host grub and lays an eggon each which developes inside the beetle larva.

This wasp belongs to a group called the square-headed wasps Subfamily Crabroninae. They nest in sticks.

This large dead wasp is a horntail, a primitive sort of wasp. It is called the Pigeon Tremex Tremex columba.

This is a Four toothed mason wasp Monobia quadridens.

These are two female carpenter bees Xylocopa virginica, on a Black-eyed Susan and lavender. Carpenter bees nest in wood, often in the rafters of porches. People often run into the harmless males (only female bees can sting) as they patrol their  "airspace". And they make a good show of defending it from any passing insects, or sometimes people, but it's all noise.

These are male Megachile, the one on the right belongs to the subgenus Litomegachile, which I studied in grad school and wrote my thesis on.  

This is also a Megachile male, though an introduced species, and quite large. The giant resin bee Megachile sculpturalis uses plant fluid to make resin for its nest construction and hails from Asia.

This is another male bee, this time a bumble bee Bombus sp. Males have bigger eyes, and a round fluffy sort of body and no stinger. This one is drinking nectar from a clover. Beside mating, that is all they do, feed on nectar.

This is a cuckoo bee in the genus Coelioxys which parasitizes Megachile nests. Like a cuckoo bird, the female lays an egg in the host nest. The young cuckoo bee hatches first, kills the hosts egg and feeds on the provision the host bee left for its young. This is a male, and its tattered wings let you know it has been around for a while.