Ancyloscelis apiformis, m, paraguay, face

I love the form of this shot. The strong diagonal formed by bee head wing and thorax with the lovely interplay of bows and arcs found in tongues, antennae, wings, and legs, with a crisp pink-hued alien eye right in the middle....looking at you.Probably a specialist on bindweed pollen, this group of bees runs from the Southwestern states down into southern South America. Note the expanded femurs of this male, interesting to speculate as to why. From the Packer Lab. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200 USGSBIML Photoshopping Technique: Note that we now have added using the burn tool at 50% opacity set to shadows to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.