Insects of note, 2025 Edition

In 2024, I began using this html format to record images that represent my ongoing taxonomic work, as well as a range of entomological subjects that capture my attention. The 2024 Edition is mainly populated with focus-stacked images of bees, with an occasional detour to caterpillars or parasitic wasps.  Or the Galapagos. Update 19 Apr.

Click any image for a larger magnification.

Taxonomy projects

Claytonia

Spring beauty is an early wildflower with a mining bee specialist, Andrena erigeneae. There is a paper that suggests that A. erigineae is perhaps too good of a pollen forager, as it depletes the lmited productivity of the plant. At least a couple of Lasioglossum also visit spring beauty.

Female Andrena eregineae 
Male Andrena eregineae

... Claytonia

At least a couple of Lasioglossum species, one green/gold (L. viridatum?), one blueish (L. coeruleum?).

... Claytonia

Above: Beefly, Bombyliius major.
Below: Chrysidid wasp
Tachinid fly  
Above: Beefly, on Claytonia and many other flowers.
Below: Nomada sp.

Apr 14, Salix

Technique: approach a willow tree, and look for individual foraging insects to net. The step back, realizing that there is a veritable cloud of bees and flies flitting about the canopy. So, take the better approach, sweeping randomly, wildly, through the branches. Put the net contents into the freezer and sort at home.    
Specimen above: cf. erythronii. See discussion.

Cardamine - toothwort

Beeflies were abundant on toothwort, and many other flowers. 

Andrena erigineae.As of 19 Apr, I've seen many males, and no females.
Andrena carlini. See iNat for my confession about mistakenly calling this A. nigrihirta.
Above: catkin fly on bloodrootbelow: trout lily, which was visited by A. carlini and beeflies.

Berry Crops Ent Lab, Mich State Univ: Third tranche

→(earlier material from 2024).

♀ Eucera hamata

♂ Eucera hamata

♀ Melissodes agilis

♂ Melissodes agilis

♀ Melissodes bimaculatus

♂ Melissodes bimaculatus

♀ Anthophora terminalis

♀ Ceratina dupla

♂ Ceratina dupla

♀ Ceratina calcarata

♀ Ceratina mikmaqi

♀ Ceratina strenua

♀ Lasioglossum leucozonium

♂ Lasioglossum leucozonium

♀ Lasioglossum linealatum

♀ Lasioglossum oceanicum

♀ Lasioglossum pectorale

♀ Lasioglossum perpunctatum

♀ Lasioglossum pilosum

♀ Lasioglossum versatum

♀ Andrena carlini

♂ Andrena carlini

♀ Andrena vicina

♂Andrena vicina

Galapagos

The islands are a long way from anywhere. Notable: 97% of the space is national park, which is to say that most of the lizards and finches will have never seen humans. Perhaps not so true for ancient tortoises, which may remember the depradations of whalers.
Fun facts about frigate birds: Largest wing-area-to-body-weight ratio of any bird. Masters of vagrancy, individuals recorded 500km from land, 4000m altitude, 4000km distance traveled (different birds, presumably). For a seabird, they are poorly waterproofed and avoid getting wet. What about rain? I'm told that they rise above the clouds.
The galapagos prickly pear is ubiquitous.
Blue-footed boobies. T-shirt vendors and tourists love to play on the risque name. So I call them "guano ducks."
Frigate bird.
Tortoises of course.
Iguanas and the sea lions are fearless, and eveywhere in the main town.
Finches of course.
There is just one bee species, the endemic capenter bee.
I saw only one other insect pollinator, this honey wasp on prickly pear.
Two spiders were common. Lecauge agyra and Argiope argentata are also mainland species.

Cuyabeno, Ecuador

We spent 5 days at this site, after 10 hours going east from Quito, into the Amazon. So the illusion is that Cuyabeno Lodge is in remote rainforest. However, the route from Quito was paralleled by a petroleum pipeline, and although we took a canoe on a winding river to the lodge, we later noted an access road that also arrived there. We saw many things I expected - monkeys, toucans, caimans, pirhana. But in comparison with other rainforests that I've found cacophonous with the songs of insects, frogs, and birds, this one was notably quiet. Perhaps it will be different with the onset of wet(ter) season. But I can't complain about the diversity we observed, especially at night.

Photos here are for a a subset of arthropod groups. I could add flies, beetles, leps, walking sticks (many), bugs, roaches, millipedes. (Not to mention ... there were vertebrates! and plants!).
Above: At a glance: moth. Actually: planthopper.

Below: mosquitos were not so bad. The wasps - at right - were the worst.
Polistes - paper wasp.

Ants

Leafcutter ants--Acromyrmex.
Army ant, Eciton sp.
Daceton armigerum feature a trap-jaw mechanism, where mandibles snap shut with a touch on the sensory hairs on the labrum.
Carpenter ants, Camponotus femoratus.
Acrobat ant and homopteran associate.

Arachnids

Tailless whipscorpion.
Ancylometes sp, "giant fishing spider," one of two spider genera that can spin webs underwater.
I didn't see jumping spiders until I began crawling through the litter. They were everywhere.
Cranaid harvestman--an ornate daddy longlegs.
Pink-toe tarantula. We didn't see these until we looked on the trunks of palms. Everywhere.

Orthoptera

 

 

 

Bees

In the dry season, very little is in bloom at ground level in the forest. Lots of water hyacinth bloom though on a tilapia pond, the only place I saw bees.
Chanchamayo Stingless Bee.
Apine bee, Paratetrapedia sp.
Eucerine bee

David Cappaert, Update 14 Feb 2025

Overlay Image