Andrena robertsonii, F, Side, MD, Boonesboro

A wee mining bee. Andrena robertsonii lives among the flowers, usually in mid to late spring, where it often lounges around gathering pollen on woody plants, things such as apples, roses, dogwoods, and sumacs. As most of you know it is super similar to A. brevipalpis, but I am not telling you anything new. This gal was collected near Boonesboro, Maryland in an open meadow. A nice find in a countryside of cut grass or cropland. Photo by Wayne Boo. 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.