dasypoda,f, united kingdom, side

Dasypoda plumipes, Hairy-footed Hairy-legged Bee, collected in the United Kingdom.The common name of this species is an accurate description of the bushy pollen carrying hind legs of the female (male bees do not transport pollen back to a nest). Different groups of bees use different parts of their bodies to carry pollen; this species obviously uses its hairy hind legs. Some results suggest that this bee belongs to a group that has had comparatively few evolutionary branchings from the prototypical original bee. One feature that supports this view is that these bees do not line their brood cells with anything. Most bees line their brood cells with glandular secretions or extraneous materials that help waterproof the cell, the wasp relatives of bees, which bees evolved from, do not do this. One reason that bees might need to keep water out of their brood cells is that pollen will go moldy. As wasps paralyze other organisms as food for their larvae, their living food is less likely to "go off". 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.