These are just a few of the amazing bee and bee related photos uploaded by the USGS Native Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.

In their own words: "The mission of the program is to design and develop large and small scale surveys for native bees. As part of the program we also develop identification tools and keys for native bee species. One aspect of creating those tools is creating accurate and detailed pictures of native bees and the plants and insects they interact with."

The Lab’s presence on Flickr "provides easy access to our photographs so that they may be freely used and there is no need to ask for our permission for any use of these photographs."

However, if you would like to have the original TIF files or if you’re interested in taking similar photos with the system developed by Dr. Anthony G Gutierrez, you should check out the Monitoring Lab’s profile page for contact information and a manual.

Photos from USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab.