#bwmaglev

Bees!  Yes, we still mostly do bees, but have been targeting biodiversity surveys of the MAGLEV impact sites on the refuge.  Here look at this tiny bee, as with all creatures there is a story as to why you do or do not find it somewhere.  Here it is found because of sand (USGS TIP OF THE DAY. if you want regionally rare insects and plants  go to sand, if you want to conserve them, keep that sand openish and don't let those darn trees grow in them), it is restricted to deep sand areas in Maryland it is in love with the little fall composites (yes, insects feel love).  (Why do I still add 2 spaces to the end of a sentance?)This is just one of a handful of records on the Patuxent Refuge under the powerlines (transmission lines can often be the most awesome conservation area for plants and insects...because they have to be kept open ... or you can just mow all that goodness away with sprays and mowing...sigh) that will be  impacted by the MAGLEV the area is full of lovely things like blooming liatris and other prairie and bog type  species.  Photo by Adam Grima.  

Immature Planthopper?  Treehopper?  Beetle?  ???  Metallic is not what I think of when I think of Planthoppers, but then what is it?  Is it an immature?  Anyway, cool, and very small, see the side shot showing it on the end of a pin.  Knowing all the insects even on a small plot is basically impossible.  This is from the Beltsville Ag Center West MAGLEV trainyard proposed site.  Photo by Jade Loiuis.  

These are perhaps Agromyzid flies.   Not sure, but they are very tiny tiny tiny flies ( I used a 10X microscope lens and still have to crop the shots), which would fit their leaf mining lifestyle.  There appear to be 2 species in this set.  Let's pretend they are Agromyzids which gives me a chance to tell you that they are very picky.  Each choosing to "mine" the leaves and stems of a small number of plants.  Hidden biodiversity.  Thank you little plants and flies.  Collected on the proposed Maglev Trainyard site on the Beltsville Agriculture Research Station. 

Photo by Elizabeth Panner. New photographer in the lab.

Ah, more petit four lime green arthropods from the National honey bee research station that the MAGLEV will locate its trainyard on.  This one is the Northern Crab Spider (Mecaphesa asperata) the first record for Prince George's County, and possibly the last (though it seems common elsewhere) because this site will 200 acres of concrete and train tracks.  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 with venom, often taking down insects quite a bit larger than they are.  Imagine if something like that lurked around your neighborhood bar!   Photo by Adam Grima

From the MAGLEV impact site on Patuxent...yet another tiny Jumping Spider, how tiny...it is sitting on the cut end of a pin for scale.  There are so many of these around at this time of year, the woods and fields are thick with these hunters....personable too, with their forward facing eyes, they appear to have a relationship with you.  They do, of course, both the spider and you just can't figure out what it is.  Photo by Adam Grima.   I have no idea which species of Jumper this is.  

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 thi sissince there are 256 known species in Maryland and that number continues to climb.  And, I would also like to point out that like so many other small things we share the planet with small does not mean not beautiful ("not mean not" what a lovely symmetrical double negative).  Weevils do not tend towards not dull colors (! Experimental Grammar Warning !), but do not not (!EGW!) array themselves in patterned and colored hairs, craft their bulbous shapes into pleasing heavy weight shapes, and often have long "snouts" and cute antennae.  Proudly, the Bee Lab again goes over the cutting edge with new combinations of grammar and anthropomorphic coding.   Oh, this also comes from the land that will be the MAGLEV trainyard site.  

Jumping Spiders are difficult for me to ignore.  Here is a relatively large specimen collected a few days ago on the Beltsville Ag Center BARC West 200 acre proposed MAGLEV site.  This mini-aliens will remain active until a hard freeze does them in.  Photo by Elizabeth Panner, new in the lab and working on her photo chops.