Melitta melittoides, m, face, Anne Arundel Co, MD

Looks just like a "bee" does it not? Not super sexy, pretty plain really. But so very interesting. This is Melitta melittoides. A very uncommon bee. Uncommon because it only feeds its babies the pollen from Lyonia (Fetterbush, Staggerbush if you will). Lyonia is around, but it has the problem that it likes brushy, partially open areas and blooms pretty late in the season when the area is filled with heat, humidity, ticks and few people looking for bees. It also looks a lot like more common things like blueberries. So, we very very rarely see this species, but it may be more common than we think. Or, maybe it is super rare. Almost no one is looking. Collected in a USDA malaise trap in the bottomlands of Patuxent Wildlife Research Center and photographed by Hannah Sutton. 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.