Bombus ashtoni, f, side, albany, mccabe 2017-02-01-12.30 (32295474310)

Bombus ashtoni! This is news. This species of bumble bee is nest parasite. They take over the nests of other bumble bees and use the host's workers to produce their progeny. This one is special because its known hosts are B. affinis (the endangered Rusty-patched Bumble Bee) and B. terricola (a species that declined greatly from its former numbers, but may be recovering now. Thus the odds were stacked against our parasite friend, who may also be vulnerable to the pathogens that took out these species.

   So, how cool was it when Matt Schlesinger/Amanda Dillon passed a few "interesting" bumble bees collected in the Albany Pine Bush in New York by specimens by Tim McCabe in 2016 and there it was.

Leif Richardson (keeper of the Bumble Bee Database) writes about the last eastern records for B. ashtoni: Michael Veit got it in NH in 2010 and MA in 2008. Sheila Colla has a 2008 record from Pinery in ON (west of the Appalachians). I have three records 2007-2008 from Michel Savard and Pierre-Marc Brousseau in Quebec. Next most recent are from Cory Sheffield in Nova Scotia, 2002.

21:49, 4 February 2017 (UTC)21:49, 4 February 2017 (UTC){{{{{{0}}}}}}21:49, 4 February 2017 (UTC)21:49, 4 February 2017 (UTC)

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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

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Art Photo Book: Bees: An Up-Close Look at Pollinators Around the World www.qbookshop.com/products/216627/9780760347386/Bees.html...

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