Bee Swap. Do you trade in bees? Probably not, but there is a world (a very small world) where people try to put names on bees and this world is aswirl with bee swapping. That insular world trucks almost entirely in dead bees on pins, because to id a bee you have to look at all sorts of minute things under a microscope. Not so easy. On Andrena species (like this A. lapponica that was collected in Slovakia by Peter Šima where he notes it was collected in a "Beech forest interior, clearing with Salix sp. in bloom, close to Stužická rieka river" ) the characters you look at might be: the shape of legs, the length of the second antennal segment compared to the first segment, the color of the hairs on the face, the length of the mandibles, how close the simple ocelli are to the back of the head, The amount of branching of the hairs on the hind legs, and a plethora of technical and therefore jargon filled characters that don't leave the rooms of bee heads. Because bee id is hard, this small bee world is constantly sending specimens around the "real" world for study, dna extraction, second opinions, all part of a mostly old fashioned world of sharing. If you have a microscope, you can join the club. Just sayin'. Photo by Cole Cheng. ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{0}}}}}}~~~~~~~~~~
All photographs are public domain, feel free to download and use as you wish.
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
We Are Made One with What We Touch and See
We are resolved into the supreme air,
We are made one with what we touch and see,
With our heart's blood each crimson sun is fair,
With our young lives each spring impassioned tree
Flames into green, the wildest beasts that range
The moor our kinsmen are, all life is one, and all is change.
- Oscar Wilde
You can also follow us on Instagram - account = USGSBIML
Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:
Best over all technical resource for photo stacking:
www.extreme-macro.co.uk/
Art Photo Book: Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World:
www.amazon.com/Bees-Up-Close-Pollinators-Around-World/dp/...
Free Field Guide to Bee Genera of Maryland:
bio2.elmira.edu/fieldbio/beesofmarylandbookversion1.pdf
Basic USGSBIML set up:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-_yvIsucOY
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.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdmx_8zqvN4
Bees of Maryland Organized by Taxa with information on each Genus
www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/collections
PDF of Basic USGSBIML Photography Set Up:
ftp://ftpext.usgs.gov/pub/er/md/laurel/Droege/How%20to%20Take%20MacroPhotographs%20of%20Insects%20BIML%20Lab2.pdf
Google Hangout Demonstration of Techniques:
plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo
or
www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU
Excellent Technical Form on Stacking:
www.photomacrography.net/
Contact information:
Sam Droege
sdroege@usgs.gov
301 497 5840
