Derbid Planthopper? Not sure, not a group I know much about, so many things like this out there in our environments. Found while sweeping the vegetation of a powerlines #planthopper

Plague Doctor #Beetle. Or so technician Andres Croft has christened this unknown #weevil. I can see his point. I also see the point of not knowing which weevil this is since there are 256 known species in Maryland and that number continues to climb.

Am guessing this is one of the long-jawed orbweavers (Tetragnatha), check out the long jaws and what appear to be some sort of specialized palps? Just another successful experiment by our friend Nature. Photo by Jade Louis.

Basic small ant from Beltsville Agriculture Research Center. For something so small there is a lot of architecture going on here. Reminds me of the Twain quote "Nelson would have been afraid of ten thousand fleas, but a flea wouldn't be afraid of ten thousand Nelsons."

Head of the previous post's ant. Exquisitousness in architecture. #ant #ants #patternsinnature

Who knew there were that many #lacewings? This is one of the brown members, which should plunk it into the Hemerobiidae group. If only I had know more we would have taken a picture of the wings. Anyway, love the crazy eyes of these species, more jeweled dome than eye.

The Petit Four #Spider (Mecaphesa asperata) the first record for Prince George's County (back in the day). This crab spider provides a little floral surprise. It tucks into flowers and when visitors come to the nectar bar for a quick drink, nabs them and juices them up

Hey want something to do with your one valuable life? Figure out the proper species boundaries for ambush bugs in North America (Phymata). These lovelies come in many colors and are thought to be over-described. Really, who wouldn't want to work on this group?

A little busman's holiday of mine is collecting bees of the Caribbean. 3 trips to St. Croix last year. This year 3 trips to St. Thomas. This is Centris smithii a species that was here-to-fore unrecorded for the island. One of 3 Centris that were newly located.

Centris Face. In this case C. smithii Centris Face from St. Croix, Virgin Islands. Photo by Grace Schilling

Batocera rufomaculata. The very large Mango Stem #Borer. Found on St. Croix where it is obviously introduced from what would appear to be the Indian subcontinent and/or Southeast Asia. Lovely beetle. Photo by Grace Schilling and Orr Uzan-Tidhar.

Trachusa dorsalis. Always a pleasure to gaze upon a Trachusa. Here this stylish male comes from Georgia at the border with Florida. A specialist on the oft ignored group of fuzzy beans (Strophostyles) simply planting giftspossibilities of Trachusas

The somewhat unsettling face of our friend, Trachusa dorsalis. #bee #bees #trachusa

This #fly mostly eye. I don't know my #flies well, so am not sure if this is actually one of the big-headed flies or something similar with its head mostly made up of its compound eyes. This critter is small and taken with a 10x microscope objective on a 200mm lens

The Duck Spider. Unsure to say the least which species this might be, but I am calling it the Duck Spider. Beltsville, Maryland

Entrancing Omatidian. Full screen this kids. Very small #fly, head about the size of the head of a pin. Unsure of species. An illuminated photobition of how lovely fly eyes can be, the eye color alone is humanly irreproducable.

This jobber here is in the former Sphecidae group which now has been split between Sphecidae and Crabronidae (I am leaning Sphecidae, but not 100% on that). Their wing veination is very similar to bees and they cross-mis-identification happens regularly.

Neoclytus scutellaris, one of the cerambycid beetles. Its larvae are apparent fans of dead Hickories. You spend hours ornmenting your house, Nature has spent millenia ornamenting Nature so you can ornament your house. Photo by Anders Croft.

Ah, here is one of the most annoying of insects (to mammals that is) a tabanid fly, aka deer fly. But almost all of them have some sort of beautiful neon rainbow eye pattern to gift those who look closely. #fly #flies #deerfly

Conura, from our Research Center in Maryland. These small parasitic wasps are thought (or so google indicates) to be hyperparasites...infecting other parasites that have parasitized things like caterpillars. Unsure of what species. Lovely form. #conura