Agapostemon sericeus, f, face, Pr. George's Co., MD

East of the Mississippi River there are 4 species of Agapostemons. The largest of the metallic green Sweat Bees. In some places they can be extremely abundant. This species, however, is never abundant, but exists throughout its range in a here and there sort of way. Regularly occurring, but never dominating. Some of these species can be quite difficult to tell apart visually, but numbers alone tell us that they have different lives, strategies and life histories if we stop to study them. Picture by Brooke Alexander. 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.