#hymenotpera

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look at this lisa frank xenomorph ass freak. Heydenia sp.

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yee haw nice chaps

Centris bee from new mexico

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the most cartoon dad ass lookin' bee i've ever seen, a male Dufourea campanulae (Halictidae)

identifying bees, particularly ones collected in the western US where they're hyperdiverse and criminally understudied, really makes me feel like an old timey gumshoe detective. There's around 70 described species of Dufourea in the US, mostly in the west, and of course no comprehensive treatments or keys have been published, just dozens of 70-130 year old scientific monographs, mostly written by Theodore "Mr Too Many Damn Bees" Cockerell, that need to be individually looked up and compared almost line-by-line until you find one that fully matches the specimen.

here's the original description by Cockerell written in 1897 if you're curious:

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🧡 Acromyrmex versicolor 🧡

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happy Megachile Monday!

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some bugs i saw at work 25.II.2022 - 8.III.2022

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daaaaaamn