Megachile relativa, female, right, mariposa, Ca, 2017-07-13-16.46

Megachile relativa. Pretty ubiquitous in North America though it appears to be absent from most of the Midwest. The orange pollen carrying hairs on the underside of the abdomen narrow things down in terms of the various Megachile species, bug there are a few species that look very similar....particularly the introduced Megachile centuncularis. Collected in Yosemite National Park by Claire Kremen's Research Team. Photos by Anders Croft. 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.