File:Bee eucerine, f, chile, face 2014-08-09-14.03.29 ZS PMax (15451152268).jpg

Eucerinoda gayi, Gay’s Eucerine

Claude Gay was a French entomologist who in the early 1800’s traveled to Chile to teach. However natural history was his passion and he spent most of his time in the country studying the plants, animals, and geology. Such a non-traditional life path has consequences and he writes: “The study of medicine seemed to me the most attractive and the one best suited to my tastes. Unfortunately, my increasing passion for natural history made me abandon it and that is something I shall regret all my life”.

The lovely plump and furry Gay’s Eucerine was named for Gay and it is likely that he supplied the specimens that resulted in its scientific description by Maximilian Spinola in the 1850s. Even though the species was described over a century and a half ago, no other species in the genus have been found and it remains almost entirely unstudied. Its known populations appear to be restricted to the isolated temperate rainforests of central Chile. Clearly the time for exploration was not completed in the 1800s and it is estimated that only about half the planet’s bees have been scientifically described. The planet could use a few more young people to follow their passions.

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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

Further in Summer than the Birds Pathetic from the Grass A minor Nation celebrates Its unobtrusive Mass. No Ordinance be seen So gradual the Grace A pensive Custom it becomes Enlarging Loneliness. Antiquest felt at Noon When August burning low Arise this spectral Canticle Repose to typify Remit as yet no Grace No Furrow on the Glow Yet a Druidic Difference Enhances Nature now

      -- 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