The Not so Colorful Orchid Bee (but yet very large). Eulaema cingulata. Plenty of the Orchid Bee clade are over the top in their green glossy fair-thee-well metallic sorts of way. But, Eulaema ...;No. They are fur-bodied with small finishes or notes of metallic tucked into non-obvious places. The males do pack the usual scent holsters ready for charging with orchid based perfumes (check the legs out in these shots and figure that out on your own). (Time for a Side Bar: Perfumators have a lush and long list of words to describe scents (I, for example, prefer the exotic and overpowering intoxication of gasoline and bar oil which is both languid and beguiling) and would, in the case of orchid bees, love to have the volatiles gathered by the males analyzed through the noses of perfumators (rather than chemists.)..could be some nice new scents developed (though, actually, you couldn't wear these scents in tropical Americas (though this would be the most indiginously obvious place to wear them) because the wearer would soon be covered in orchid bees; fine if they were metallic green orchid bees, but not if they were like Eulaemas (this is perhaps too judgmental on my part)) I could go on. This bee collected by the native bee convert Tim McMahon in Costa Rica. Photo by Elizabeth Panner who is generally getting better, but did cut the nose off one of these shots. ~~~~~~~~~~{{{{{{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:
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