Once the US Geological Survey realized the importance of bees to the pollination of our crops, and specifically the dire need to preserve native species, they set out to catalogue them and used advanced macro-photography tools provided by the military to piece together extreme close-up shots like the ones above.
There is nothing left to say but … wow.
Head on over to National Geographic or the USGS’ bee inventory on Flickr for the entire series and prepare to be amazed!