Andrena nasonii, back, MaLisa Spring (Special wings)

Ugly Bee...For sure, but an interesting one. Brooke Goggins took this one on a grayish background to highlight the wings of this Andrena nasonii. This specimen was collected by Gabriel Karns as part of a study of rights of way in eastern Ohio. We noticed that it has some funny vein business going on. Look at the wing, on the outer edge the last cell towards the tip is called the marginal cell (because it is on the margin) below that are what appears to be 2 or so cells...these are sub-marginal cells. However, in this species there should be 3 not 2 sub-marginals. You can see that the veins that would fraction off the additional cell are either partial or just a stub on each side. Gene Scarpulla just published a paper on the topic...such things occur periodically in the bee world to add a layer of trickiness for us bee identifiers. 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.