Andrena brevipalpis, M, face, Caroline County

From a study of woodland bees in the mid-Atlantic area comes this small, somewhat obscure, Andrena found in a woodland in Caroline County, Maryland. For some reason, a number of males in the genus Andrena have yellow on their faces, while the females do not. This, as a general rule of thumb, which is that in the bee world males will have more yellow markings on their bodies in the females. Why is that? Photography by Serena Hochmuth. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 200mm Pentax-m with Nikon 10X infinity microscope objective lens mounted on front , Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.6, 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.