Halictus ligatus, m, face, Centre Co., PA

Halictus ligatus. One of the crow bees of the North America. It occurs almost everywhere and remains common in urban and disturbed sites, where it is just fine with gathering pollen from alien weeds and flower beds. These bees occur throughout the year living in a semi-social state where daughters help mothers and more than one generation occurs within the year. Look in your garden and it will be there. The female in this series is covered in what is likely pumpkin pollen. Kelly Graninger took the stack of photos and Laura Russo collected the bees near State College, PA. 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.