Nomada graenicheri, left, f, Ritchie, WV
Nomada are one of the more colorful bees in Eastern North America. Relatively bare of hairs (for a bee) which makes sense since they don't carry pollen, they steal it. They steal it by dropping off an egg in another bee's nest and its young kill's the host young and eats all the food (you probably know people like this). You may ask which species of bees host this Nomada graenicheri? And, I will say I don't know as bees nests are hard to find to begin with let along figuring out what is parasitizing them. Picture taken by Erick Hernandez and specimen captured in the mountains of West Virginia by Mr. WV Bees, Mark Hepner.
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde. Original public domain image from Flickr