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Andrena oman, f, oman, back

Detailed Description

Andrena species, Black-tipped Andrena, specimen collected by Jason Gibbs in OmanEvolution has blessed the genus Andrena with over 1500 different species, making it the second richest of all bee genera (Hairy-tongue Bees, Lasioglossum, are first). Despite all this abundance of species they have not traveled very far south and do not occur in either South America or Australia and are relatively rare in Africa. So what fun is it to find that Jason Gibbs on an expedition to Oman has found an Andrena where no Andrena had been recorded before? Sadly, at this point we don't know if this is a species of Andrena new to science or something previously described but not documented. Given that several Andrena are known from Saudi Arabia and many are known from Iran, one would suspect that this species might be identifiable, it certainly is a very distinctive looking bee. Unlike the majority of Andrena, but perhaps more common in extremely dry areas, this bee is not the normal black color but largely a lovely orange-red. 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.