Osmia near inurbana group 2, f, right, Porter co. Indiana

Taxonomy and Discovery. One would expect based on what we know about things like plants and birds, that we would largely have figured out what species of bees exist in the Eastern United States...Not so, still much to do for the students of bees. Here is an example of a bee that is being worked on...it has been called several different names and those names are connected to several other names of males and female Osmia from across that U.S. At this point we know it is different, but is it color form, different species ??? It seems to be associated with sand dunes around the Great Lakes...or,are these simply the few good natural areas that bee biologists visit. So many questions. Some go to the moon, others simply walk out of doors to make discoveries. Who is to say they are any better than the other. Pictures by Anders Croft. 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.