Osmia inurbana, f, left, Oneida Co. ID

This bee is part of a taxonomic mystery spanning the continent. It turns out that the male of this species is very likely named as O. trevoris, by a long ago taxonomist., All specimens were thought to be limited to the West, but....there were these strange Osmia around the Great Lakes that were sometimes called (incorrectly it now seems) O. michiganense or "species c" or simply went unidentified. Looks like they are actually part of the O. inurbana clan, but with some different hair colors to mix things up....and are also pretty darn rare. Its been fun to be playing a small part in diving this mystery with Molly Rightmyer and Mike Arduser. More needs to be worked out but a small wrinkle in the taxonomic landscape may become a bit smoother. Note the interesting hairs on the front of the fact of this species. Likely an adaptation to some interesting pollen handling...but what friends....what....Photographs 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.