Osmia simillima, side
Osmia simillima, side
A somewhat big and somewhat northern Osmia. One of the frustrating things about bees is that entire groups look about the same, such is Osmia. In this case we see things like an expanded front basitarsis with long sigmoid hairs and several other small differences that add up to this species, these puzzles can be fun or frustrating, but it takes time to learn to play the game. .... Really though, it is a lot of fun, and important work, you should get a microscope and try it, citizen, better than looking at television all night. Specimen captured in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. Stack shot by Dejen Mengis. On the face shot note the confusion in the stacking process around the antennae...this can be taken care of in zerene stacker, but we didn't bother because we mostly are in production mode.
I taste a liquor never brewed,
From tankards scooped in pearl;
Not all the vats upon the Rhine
Yield such an alcohol!
Inebriate of air am I,
And debauchee of dew,
Reeling, through endless summer days,
From inns of molten blue.
When landlords turn the drunken bee
Out of the foxglove's door,
When butterflies renounce their drams,
I shall but drink the more!
Till seraphs swing their snowy hats,
And saints to windows run,
To see the little tippler
Leaning against the sun!
- Emily Dickinson. Original public domain image from Flickr