Augochlora pura, m, face, Hardy Co. West V irginia

One of THE most common bees in Eastern North America and one of the most woodland oriented. This species nests in rotting wood and I have found them overwintering underneath the loose bark of logs on the ground. This is a lovely and slightly moody male, you can see it is a bit thinner and slightly longer of antennae than its opposite sex and, of course, has no pollen carrying hairs on its legs. A mating machine and that is about it. This specimen from a malaise sample collected by Dave Smith of sawfly fame in the mid-2000's. Photo by Amanda Robinson. 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.