Hylaeus sparsus, f, left side, Shenandoah, VA

A very uncommon masked bee. This is Hylaeus sparsus, which is definitely identified by the spike-like angle on the front coxa (the closest joint to the body). Sadly you cannot see that feature in this picture. More of a spring species than many of the Hylaeus it occurs here and there and appears to be associated with wooded areas. Collected in Shenandoah National Park by Jessica Rykken as part of her surveys of the park. There are so many of things like this out there, something rare, something we think of as obscure, something we perhaps think is unimportant because it does not intersect with our lives, but yet, it may have evolved many many thousands of years ago and lived on this planet longer than our species. Shot by Sydney Price. 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.