Augochlora pura, m, back, Hardy Co. West Virginia

One of THE most common bees in Eastern North America and one of the most woodland oriented. This species nests in rotting wood and I have found them overwintering underneath the loose bark of logs on the ground. This is a lovely and slightly moody male, you can see it is a bit thinner and slightly longer of antennae than its opposite sex and, of course, has no pollen carrying hairs on its legs. A mating machine and that is about it. This specimen from a malaise sample collected by Dave Smith of sawfly fame in the mid-2000's. Photo by Amanda Robinson. 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.