Heriades variolosa or leavitti, female, back

A beautiful little hole nesting bee, this Heriades is either H. variolosa or H. leavitti. The females are impossible to tell apart, unless the molecular hood were open. Collected on Chino Farm by Dan Small in Kent County, Maryland. Photograph by Brooke Alexander. 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.