Lasioglossum hitchensi, f, right side, Columbia, PA

One of the most common and plain bees in the East. This is the very small Lasioglossum hitchensi. Its commoness did not prevent it from being undescribed scientifically. In only the last 10 years was it given a name by Jason Gibbs, who extracted it from many confusing and similar look alike species. Becuase of this and similar tales, we have to be careful about using old data....its only as good as the taxonomy and identifications. No wonder we can't determine if native bees are increasing or decreasing...we haven't even bothered to name them! Picture by Greta Forbes...bee capture up by state college by the inimical Laura Russo. 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.