Identifying Insects at the CB is Hard Work

Yes. Identifying those insects is way harder than keeping the Republic of Tejas (ROT) safe from foreign terrorists. That’s because there are way more insects at the CB than there are actual foreign terrorists afflicting the ROT. Even if imaginary foreign terrorists are enumerated, the CB insects still outnumber those imaginary or virtual foreign terrorists. Course, the domestic terrorists may rival or exceed the CB insects in total numbers. But whose job is it to keep track of the home grown terrorists? That’s not hard work, because in the ROT, those jobs don’t exist. Or maybe they do exist. But if they exist, they are probably more like hobbies than jobs.

There are at least three different bunches of small green hymenopterans. The three I personally know about or have heard tell of are the sweat bees, cuckoo wasps and Osmia sp., all of which are somewhat illustrated or discussed in my copy of the Field Guide to Insects of North America. However, I may not, having acquired a photo of one of these green hymenopterans, know, based on information provided in that book, which bunch the one I have a picture of, belongs to.

But sometimes hard work pays off. Like it turns out that An Introduction to the Study of Insects contains a line drawing of the wing of a halictid bee, including an arched basal vein that much resembles the arched basal vein in this picture. So. This is a sweat bee.

Trouble is, cuckoo wasps are supposed to have sculptured exoskeletons. Sculptured means punctate. Anyway, all my sweat bees appear a tad punctate. Boy howdy. I need to get a copy of the Insects of North America, North of Mexico.