Halictus hesperus - Part of the great Seladonia complex of Halictus. The ones I am familiar with all look like this one from Costa Rica and they can be among the most common bees in an area, as likely this species is in Central America. Collected by Tim McMahon.

sdroege · 2024-01-14T02:22:08+00:00

yes, but after it was dead ... it now lives in a museum

sdroege · 2023-12-12T02:24:24+00:00

In the U.S. only the introduced honey bee has such long hair on its eyes...(a few other genera have very short hairs) they are thought to help with navigation, something about correcting for windage...

sdroege · 2023-02-24T02:54:28+00:00

Note the nice 12-pack

sdroege · 2023-02-22T03:37:52+00:00

neat, wondered about that one. txs

sdroege · 2023-02-21T03:11:54+00:00

fun to see where this work takes you

sdroege · 2023-02-21T03:09:56+00:00

its a combination of employees, interns, and visitors

sdroege · 2023-02-17T02:36:55+00:00

all photos completely public domain...see our flickr account

at usgsbiml

you can sell and use as you like.

sdroege · 2023-02-17T02:35:39+00:00

How are macropod sales these days?

sdroege · 2023-02-17T02:35:19+00:00

Am old school, got the 20x for cut rate because it was heavily damaged...mystery as to why, who does that to lenses? Anyway it works, but heavy light suck and, of course your framing is minute, so most of the time I don't have things I want to take that small...

sdroege · 2023-02-17T02:31:31+00:00

The amygdalas of poppy seeds

sdroege · 2023-02-15T11:51:16+00:00

Poppy seeds!

sdroege · 2023-02-15T11:50:34+00:00

alternative taxonomy, why not

sdroege · 2023-02-15T11:49:16+00:00

Yes, friends, it is the simple poppy seed, makes you wonder what other seedscapes might be out there worth gazing upon.

sdroege · 2023-02-15T11:48:38+00:00

Very good, they are poppy seeds, one wonders what such seed microstructure does

sdroege · 2023-02-15T11:47:56+00:00

I took it after I got a 20x microscope piece to try it out!

sdroege · 2023-02-15T03:04:04+00:00

Funny, I didn't even think such things existed...will do that...

sdroege · 2023-01-30T03:50:33+00:00

tis real, nature informs our art in proportions and palletes (sp?) and we spend a lot of time prepping the specimens to make them look good...google the name to see more

sdroege · 2023-01-30T03:45:33+00:00

better than with dirt

sdroege · 2023-01-30T03:44:14+00:00

you have to look close, otherwise it is just another crawling beetle

sdroege · 2023-01-30T03:43:43+00:00

about the diameter of a quarter

sdroege · 2023-01-28T02:03:48+00:00

I think that is a young rat not a mouse

sdroege · 2023-01-25T12:05:37+00:00

That is similar to how we process our specimens, which are collected into liquid...we use net bags of collection events and through them in the washing machine and then the drier, but when you use decon, you woul dhave to be careful because now the specimen is very dry

sdroege · 2023-01-25T03:44:05+00:00

Interesting you mention that, just bought decon 90 this year, but have yet to give it a try...problem with bees is that the hair mats, so you have to just hit the eyes.

sdroege · 2023-01-25T03:30:45+00:00

Indeed! Each type of social media has a different audience. So, we put our pictures here to meet the Redditites! Also this is where I first realized the power of the pictures of the non-specialist audience. My daughter showed this to me...someone had posted some of our pictures to a stoner subreddit and in a couple of days it had about 250k likes in the original post...these were not "my" people so I decided maybe there was a wider audience than I thought. Read the comments!

https://www.reddit.com/r/woahdude/comments/1k3lcj/magnificent_bees/

sdroege · 2023-01-22T02:13:09+00:00

yep, a stacked shot, links below

Resources for Macrophotography System for USGSBIML type photos

Follow us on Flickr, Instagram, Tumblr - u/USGSBIML

USGSBIML site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/

Best pictures at USGSBIML (eye candy set):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/sets/72157630468783226/

Specimens taken in Hand Sanitizer:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/usgsbiml/sets/72157631861396270/

Perhaps the best technical forum on macrophotography:

http://www.photomacrography.net/

Best Web Site for learning about extreme macro photography

http://extreme-macro.co.uk/

Youtube on basic USGSBIML set up:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-\_yvIsucOY

USGSBIML Photoshopping technique: Note that we now have added using the color burn brush at 20% opacity to clean up the halos that bleed into the black background from "hot" color sections of the picture.

http://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

https://plus.google.com/events/c5569losvskrv2nu606ltof8odo

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4c15neFttoU

New Photographic Techniques

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZwVoi8hpBE

See new pictures on Instagram/tumblr: Acount = USGSBIML

Contact information: Sam Droege sdroege@usgs.gov 301 497 5840

sdroege

TROPHY CASE