Perdita bradleyi, f, face, jug bay, md

You never know what you are going to run into. This is Perdita bradleyi. A very uncommon bee and only the second record I know of for Maryland or any of the surrounding states. Found by Don Harvey and then Tim McMahon on Jug Bay Wetlands Reserve in Anne Arundel County. One interesting aspect of this species is that it is a spring species, the only one in the region (the rest are fall species). As you can see from the pictures, it has been collecting a lot of pollen, but it remains a mystery (so many mysteries) as to what plant that pollen is from. 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.