Andrena macra, f, left, Kent Co. Maryland

Andrena macra. One of almost 100 species of Andrena that occur in the State of Maryland. Quick glance, another dark bee, but if you look close you will see the dense pitting on the top of the abdomen, the subtle white hair bands on the abdomen, and most importantly the clincher is the inner tibial spur is s-curved in sigmoidality, while other species have more or less straight ones...sadly this is not visible in this picture, but take a look at the lovely tongue architecture instead and ponder why your tongue does not look like that. Or ... is it a tongue? Photo by Brooke Goggins. 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.