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Hylaeus sparsus, m, left side, Senandoah, VA

Detailed Description

A rare Masked Bee. This is Hylaues sparsus. It shows up here and there, hard to say where its niche is in the world. No one catches many of them. Can't really pin a habitat on them or a focal plant that they have their favorite pollen. If you are paying attention it is easy to identify as the front Coxae (the segments connecting legs to thorax) have sharp, acute spikes coming out of them. No other Eastern Masked Bees have that. So much we don't know. Collected in Shenandoah National Park by Jessica Rykken and photographed 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.

Sources/Usage

Public Domain.