Ah, summer, season of buzzing and flying and biting! The insects are out in force. OK, there’s really not that much biting, per se. Seen last week on Nantucket: 
One of the green metallic bees, genus Agapostemon, also known as sweat bees, on chicory flower. Note the big bundles of pollen around the legs.
A small Syrphid fly on one of the wild roses.
Freezing a beetle for a minute or two makes it easier to photograph, but then you get the dead beetle look. (And since only Paul and Ringo are still around…) The bug, one of the long-horned beetles, specifically Strangalia luteicornis, revived.
Genus Photinis firefly.
The battering of June bugs, genus Phyllophaga, against window screens was a constant of my island youth. They still come towards the lights, the poor bastards. And sometimes they get in. This one promptly fell to the floor on its back, lurched around, and then upwards into the air and was almost immediately caught in spider silk underneath a table. Although the spider was much smaller, it eventually captured what must have been food for a week. The flash here captures the beetle’s elytra, the shell-like coverings of the wings, as well as the wonderfully feathered antennae.
(All my Nantucket posts can be found here.)
Nice shots Matthew – Passing to the group.
Ken
Thanks, Ken.
I think I’ve seen almost all of these guys. For several summers I had the most wonderful emerald green small bees that nested in holes in my perennial bed. Any idea what they were? Haven’t seen any this summer.
Joyce V.V.
Several families of bees nest underground, but the emerald green makes me think these might be one of the Halictidae, or sweat bees. I find bugguide.net an excellent source for identifying insects: check out the pics of sweat bees there