Hylaeus sparsus, m, left side, Senandoah, VA

An underlooked bee, so to speak. Hylaeus sparsus, a small Hylaeus that comes with a nice spine where the leg attaches to the thorax...making ID easy ...if you look for that spine, otherwise it is another small Masked Bee. This one was collected by Jessica Rykken in Shenandoah National Park. The species shows up only rarely in collections and there are indications that it might be associated with blooming trees, but difficult to say given its rarity and complete lack of study. Pictures 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.