Lasioglossum platyparium, f, back, Charles Co., MD

The little metallic members of Lasioglossum all tend to look alike until you put them under the scope, once you do you see that some of them don't have pollen carrying hairs .... such as this L. platyparium. Those are members of the genus that are cleptoparasitic on other Lasioglossum. This species is the most common in the Mid-Atlantic area and I associate it with groups of L. versatum, callidum, trigeminum. If you look closely you can also see that the tip of the mandible has no obvious tooth on it ...another sign of being a nest parasite. Now you know. Photograph by Ashleigh Jacobs. 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.