Osmia illinoensis, m, face, Rockingham Co, VA

Range Jumper. This range jumper jumped from Illinois to Virginia. There are no records in between. How odd....this is a rare bee in its limited range in the Midwest and to find it all the way in the Mountains of Virginia seems near fantastical, but there it is and more than one specimen too. Also interesting to note that all the other Osmia in the East range from Black to dark metallic blue...nothing like this green bling, so its not like it was overlooked by past bee workers. The identification was confirmed by Molly Rightmyer. Good work Virginia Heritage People (Ellison Orcutt) who found this rare bee (as well as others) by starting to do surveys in the corners of the state. Photo by Brooke Goggins. 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.