Triepeolus distinctus, m, anne arundel co, md, back

Red-eyed Bee. What a lovely palette this bee has of tomato saturated reds, on a shiny black integument with stripes of appressed off-white hairs. This bee was found when Mimi Jenkins and I went to my favorite sand pit to collect bees while our offices were shut down due to a security threat. Such a bonus. While there we saw an abundance of huge Dieunomia heteropoda as they foraged on Maryland Goldenaster. We also found this male and its matching female Triepeolus distinctus. Turns out that the nearest records for this species are Georgia and Illinois! And it also turns out that it is a nest parasite on D. heteropoda and this sand pit is the only location with that species. Nice. 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.