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?

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

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.

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

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."

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.

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.

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

Murder Hornet (Vespa mandarinia)...Jaws of Death. #vespa #murderhornet #hornet

MURDER HORNET . Shot 2. Here is a lovely side shot of the specimen of Vespa manderinia that Izzy Hill lent us for a mini photo shoot (specimen was purchased online quite a while ago...so not sure of its exact provenance). #murderhornet #wasps #wasp

From the Bootheel. #Augochloropsis sumptuosa. A female collected by Sam Wilhelm in Missouri in an open sandy area. Sand is what this species needs and there is a lot of it near the Mississippi River in that area. A gloriously named species #bee

Nomia maneii. Rare sand loving bee from Maryland. The Nomia group has lots of taxonomically similar characteristics but, to the eye, the facet that often hits you in the face are pearlescent bands of white to blue to green (just like abalone sometimes) on the abdomen.

Picture#4. Vespa mandarinia. Giant Hornets in the genus Vespa do not naturally occur in the Western Hemisphere. They range over Europe, Asia, and Africa, but...particularly Asia.. Wikipedia lists 20 species.

MURDER HORNET WEEKEND. #5. Last in the series. Fun. A species (#Vespa manderinia) that is so big, obvious, painful, and destructive to human owned insects (i.e., honey #bees) that is has created its own mythology.

This head is made for sensing (sung to the tune of "These Boots are Made for Walkin'" - Nancy Sinatra's original is still my favorite). Again we visit with Ichneumon #Acrotaphus wiltii. This creature's top priority is finding something (spiders in this case).

Parasitic Wasp. But which one? (spoiler alert, someone already identified this as Acrotaphus wiltii).

The face from our friend, #Euglossa imperialis. #bees #bee

New Educational Bee Game from #Bee Lab Modified from #ChickenGame by Sally Lent

TONGUE. This is #Euglossa imperialis it, like the rest of its clade of shiny #orchid #bees, has a long tongue, actually ... this species has a particularly long tongue even compared to other orchid bees.

Not all tiny #beetles are black, it just seems that way. Here is one about the size of a grain of rice, but a lovely midnight blue dashed in metallic. This glintling was swept up in a sample on the Beltsville Ag Center.