The most amazing close-up insect photos you've ever seen

The images you are about to see will make you think twice before striking any small creatures flying around you.

The USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab team develops survey techniques and statistics to monitor whether bee populations are declining. His insect photographs are for scientific purposes, but with an eye on art. Lighting, placement and samples are much discussed before a photo.

Records of bee samples, as well as the plants and insects with which bees interact, are used in identification guides and posters, presentations and printed materials.

Several shots are taken with a Canon 5D II camera, made up of a 65mm macro lens. They are then stacked using special software that creates the detailed macro images. The process takes around two to four hours for each photo.

The study of bees is at least 100 years behind that of other animals, such as birds. In Mexico alone, for example, there are about 4, 000 bee species, and 400 of them have not even been named. With the research, the team has already managed to assemble a bee catalog, identifying more than 2, 000 different species.

Photographs taken during the study are posted on a Flickr page and made available to the public domain. The search for the images has surprised project manager Sam Droege. He believes he is providing an “equally charismatic microfauna” to animals that everyone wants to watch when they go to places like Madagascar.