Colletes validus, female, face

Look at the veryyyyyyy long distance from the bottom of the compound eye to the mandible base (technically this is called the malar space). Few bees show this long a head and it is nearly distinctive within Colletes at least in the north. This is a species that likes to hang out around blueberries and other Vaccinium type things. It tends to clump its nests together and it relatively uncommon to find. Photography by Brooke Alexander and Photoshopping by Elizabeth Garcia. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 200mm Pentax-m with Nikon 10X infinity microscope objective lens mounted on front , Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.6, 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.