Dasypoda plumipes, Hairy-footed Hairy-legged Bee, collected in the United Kingdom.

The common name of this species is an accurate description of the bushy pollen carrying hind legs of the female (male bees do not transport pollen back to a nest). Different groups of bees use different parts of their bodies to carry pollen; this species obviously uses its hairy hind legs. Some results suggest that this bee belongs to a group that has had comparatively few evolutionary branchings from the prototypical original bee. One feature that supports this view is that these bees do not line their brood cells with anything. Most bees line their brood cells with glandular secretions or extraneous materials that help waterproof the cell, the wasp relatives of bees, which bees evolved from, do not do this. One reason that bees might need to keep water out of their brood cells is that pollen will go moldy. As wasps paralyze other organisms as food for their larvae, their living food is less likely to “go off”.

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All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.

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

Further in Summer than the Birds Pathetic from the Grass A minor Nation celebrates Its unobtrusive Mass. No Ordinance be seen So gradual the Grace A pensive Custom it becomes Enlarging Loneliness. Antiquest felt at Noon When August burning low Arise this spectral Canticle Repose to typify Remit as yet no Grace No Furrow on the Glow Yet a Druidic Difference Enhances Nature now

      -- Emily Dickinson

Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:

Basic USGSBIML set up: www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY

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. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4

PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up: ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf

Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques: plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo or www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU

Excellent Technical Form on Stacking: www.photomacrography.net/

Contact information: Sam Droege sdroege@usgs.gov