Andrena pruni, m, front, Frederick Co., MD

Male Andrena bees can be difficult to identify. Particularly complicated and confusing are the subgenus Melandrena. Here is a member of that subgenus....A. pruni. However! it has the lovely, but obscure characteristic of a little tuft of hairs on the underside of the last segment of the abdomen, and that is particularly evident in the side shot of this 3 portrait set. Collected by Lisa Kuder in Frederick County, Maryland and pictures taken by Sydney Price. 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.