Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Andrena, miserabilis, f, back, Maryland, P.G

Detailed Description

We are finally getting around to some of the common bees of the region. This one is Andrena miserabilis. Why miserabilis for a name? Not sure, it is not a particularly miserable bee, it comes out early in the spring and can be found in almost any environment from backyard to Woodlands. It appears to have a fondness for maple pollen, particularly in our area red Maple. This may simply be due to the fact that if you come out early in the spring red Maple being may be the only abundant source of pollen. If you think about it, a tree is darned big and compared to some little tiny mustard plant is producing huge amounts of pollen and nectar, and therefore supporting, potentially, huge numbers of insects. 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.

Sources/Usage

Public Domain.