Sphecodes species, F, Side, HI, Maui County

An odd story of invasion. This is a Sphecodes, we have posted a series of them recently on Flickr. They are nest parasites. They gather no pollen themselves. There are many species...the odd thing is that I found this on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. The only native bees on the island (discounting some maybe native bees) are masked bee from the genus Hylaeus. Sphecodes does not parasitze them. They do parasitize Lasioglossum which recented invaded the islands and have become incredibly numerous in the lowlands where every weed known to mankind has been established. So here is the nest parasite of one of them. Just shows how greatly we are mixing the world's animals and plants and the unintended consesquences. Mike Arduser has seen them and they are in a clade of western North American species, but the exact species is unknown. 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.