Megachile integra, f, face, Suffolk, VA

Megachile integra is one of a small clade of Megachile and Trachusa that need small viney things in the pea family (fuzzy beans and milk peas) to feed their babies. These are nice purple flowering plants, but tend toward unkemptedness and clambering over other plants so they are almost never included in plantings for pollinators, yet, yet, yet, they should and I would imagine that they could be incorporated into edges and ditches and other locations where I have seen them in the wild. This specimen captured by Ellison Orcutt with the fabulous team at the Virginia Natural Hertage group and found in Suffolk County (or is it a town?) in Virginia. Pictures by Kelly Graninger. 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.