Splashy, orange, big. This is a get out your cell phone and take my picture sort of bee. Eucera fulvohirta is its scientific name and my name for it is Fuzzy Orange Big Bee (clever, no?). Anyway no one would pass up taking this bee's picture yet there is nary a one on iNaturalist nor Bugguide and Discoverlife shows only 3 actual collection records (1 by Ted Mitchell from the 20s and 2 from the 60's). So, safe to say, this bee is rare. Why is it rare? Mitchell says it has been found on Eleagnus and Vicia...not much to go on other than they are dangly long corolla Eucera type of plants. So, we must mount an expedition just like days of old and hunt the rare Fuzzy Orange Big Bee and study it all up. This is the only recent record I know of (but there must be others) collected by Sabrie Breland in the flatlands of South Georgia. Photo by Sara Guerrieri. Surely a donor exists who would sponsor a grad student to prevent the Fuzzy Orange Big Bee from disappearing?
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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
The grass so little has to do,
A sphere of simple green,
With only butterflies to brood,
And bees to entertain,
- Emily Dickinson
Want some Useful Links to the Techniques We Use? Well now here you go Citizen:
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
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
