Megachile exilis, F, Talbot Co., MD, Side

Megachile exilis - Megs are most famous for being leaf cutters, but some are not (leaf cutters that is). M. exilis is not and instead makes its nest with reason (actually I meant to say "resin", but since "reason" makes for an interesting sentence, I am going to leave it in there because, after all, it is our lab's Flickr stream and not the Wall Street Journal for God's sake) and since it is not in the business of cutting leaves it has lost the little knives that serrate the mandible edges, for something plainer. Collected in the Neck district of Talbot County, Maryland. Photos by Mr. Wayne Boo. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 200mm Pentax-m with Nikon 10X infinity microscope objective lens mounted on front , Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.6, 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.