Melissodes apicata, m, face, middlesex Co, MA

If all the Pickerelweed in the world would disappear...this species would too. This is Melissodes apicata; a male, as you can see form its longgggg antennae and its young can only be fed pickerelweed pollen. The males actually don't do anything of substance other than pass along their molecular material, but mom bee has little hooks on the hairs on the tip of her toungue that she uses to hook out Pickerelweed pollen. You don't get to learn these things unless someone looks Pilgrim. Claire Mudd took this shot. The specimen came from a refuge in Massachusetts, but I forget which one! 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.