John, I think it's quite likely that it is Anthidium , a female for sure. I would be rather surprised, if it wasn't. I can name you an apidologist whom you could contact in this matter, if you want to. Please! It certainly looks like an Anthidium . I'd be grateful far any help in IDing the critters...

Excellent shot!

rjlittlefield wrote:I don't know about elsewhere in the world, but here in the U.S. colony collapse disorder is being taken very seriously because of the potential economic impact.

It's taken about 3 years for or so for that to happen Rik -CCD isn't a recent phenomenon.

Planapo wrote:...And I am with you and do appreciate what you said about the ethical issues. One should really have serious reasons for taking a solitary bee from the wild.
--Betty

I'm concerned that colony collapse disorder hasn't been taken seriously because a honeybee is "just an insect"...

Planapo wrote:
Who then said it's a cuckoo bee and what genus did he/she think of?

--Betty

It wasn't from someone who is trained in identifying solitary bees -from what I can understand it can be quite difficult!

Wonderful crab spider -one of my favorite ambush predators

Seems to me that you're doing extremely well! It always amazes me at how much the detail in an image can change due to the quality of the light...

rjlittlefield wrote:At the time, you were. But the door of the doghouse swings pretty freely.

--Rik

LOL! Thanks Rik!

rjlittlefield wrote:
The latter two images could reasonably go in Technical and Studio. But they're not horribly out of place here in Nature, as long as what's done is clear.

--Rik

Thanks Rik! I put the critter back where I found it when I was done

Hmmm.... some of these photos are not of "undisturbed subjects" since I found this bee sleeping between the petals of a flower... 2x @ F13 http://dalantech.smugmug.com/photos/523373205_pTZMw-L.jpg ...but didn't think the light was all that special and my angles were limited. So I put one of the peta...

This one has been identified as a type of Cuckoo bee. I'd show you a full body shot but I'm way past my limit for posting images in this gallery :) A couple of days have passed. Unless I'm missing something, you're in bounds again. Feel free to post the full body shot. --Rik Thought I might be in t...

Check out this post Betty, in it I talk about how I photographed it (had another chance to shoot one yesterday morning).

I really like the dual composition of the second frame -between the out of focus background and the in focus dew drop. Very few people do that, and it makes for an image that really stands out! IMHO: The first two photos suffer from out of focus foreground elements -that blade of grass needs to be s...

This one has been identified as a type of Cuckoo bee. I'd show you a full body shot but I'm way past my limit for posting images in this gallery

Of the three I think the that last frame is the money shot -brilliant!

Since the critter is dead why not look for interesting abstracts in the wings? That first shot leaves me wanting to see more of those vein patterns.