Anyone Recognize this Bee? - Lasioglossum

Moved

Moved from Subgenus Halictus.

… Martin Hauser, 4 July, 2008 - 5:31pm

Moved

Moved from Halictus.

… Martin Hauser, 28 June, 2008 - 7:54pm

Thank you

That was fast.

… Beatriz Moisset, 28 June, 2008 - 9:16pm

Was an easy one... although t

Was an easy one... although the head looks a bit like an Andrena, but all the other characters are clear...

… Martin Hauser, 28 June, 2008 - 9:34pm

Hi Martin

Thanks for your input. Since I don't have enough familiarity and "gestalt" for bees, I believe my difficulty arises from the question of how to interpret the "apical"(Halictus) vs. "basal"(Lasioglossum) hair band character for the metasomal terga in the Michener(1) key. In particular, the 2nd photo in my series seemed to have "basal" hair bands to me. But here's a link to an online key for "The Bee Genera of Eastern Canada" which offers support for the opposite conclusion. That website uses two photos to illustrate the "apical" hair bands of Halictus, see here and here. From a careful viewing of those two photos, I think I see that, although the hair bands appear to cover the basal portions of a given terga, they're actually attached to the apical edge of the preceding terga. Therein lies the source of my confusion. The more I scrutinize my photos, the more the bands appear to be apical...leading to Halictus. Nevertheless, I can't quite totally convince myself. (Guess that's why the pro's collect and dissect!)

… Aaron Schusteff, 4 July, 2008 - 2:40am

Uhhh Aaron,sorry that I cause

Uhhh Aaron,sorry that I cause this confusion.... you are seeing the things complete correct, the bands are BASAL and it is a Lasioglossum! I was too quick in this decision and this species reminded me to some European Halictus, but I should have spend 5 more minutes to confirm the characters...
This character is relatively easy to see, especially in your picture there is no doubt about the position of the bands.... Sorry about this...
Cheers
Martin

… Martin Hauser, 4 July, 2008 - 5:30pm

Apologies accepted!

I've been known get ahead of myself and goof up. Guess I'm in good company:-). Seriously, your comments are always appreciated Martin.

I wish we could get John Asher to peruse these photos. I had the good fortune to bump into him at the Carrizo Plains this spring. His ability to quickly recognize and identify bees was utterly remarkable to me!

… Aaron Schusteff, 4 July, 2008 - 8:02pm

Moved

Moved from Anthophila (Apoidea) - Bees.

… Martin Hauser, 28 June, 2008 - 7:53pm

Moved back

They've been here for a very long time now and I don't think you're going to get a better ID. I've moved them back to where they were. It's possible that some of the experts will peruse the bee section and ID it for you

… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 27 February, 2008 - 5:05pm

kind of

reminds me of some kind of leaf cutter bee...

… vespula vulgaris, 4 February, 2008 - 5:56pm

Moved

Moved from Anthophila (Apoidea) - Bees.

… Aaron Schusteff, 16 January, 2008 - 10:01pm

Two and a Half Months on now...

and I finally got to trying to ID this to genus in Michener(1). Luckily, it keyed fairly clearly with relatively few steps (supported by many detailed figures in the text!). Among the key characters are the strongly arched basal vein of forewing, the three submarginal cells, and the partial cleft on the top of the last (female) abdominal segment (see 6th image above). From there it seems the basal hair bands on the metasomal terga give us Lasioglossum (basal hair bands on the metasomal terga would go to Halictus). The gregariousness of the population seems consistent with the little I've read of Halictus/Lasioglossum too.

This is the my first foray into IDing bees though, and the distinctions aren't as clear to my eye as I had hoped for. So any comments, corrections, or confirmations would be appreciated.

… Aaron Schusteff, 7 December, 2007 - 1:53am

Correction to above...

Oops, a typo. The last parenthetical statement above should read:

(apical hair bands on the metasomal terga would go to Halictus)

… Aaron Schusteff, 12 February, 2008 - 12:04pm

No answers yet?

Too bad that nobody has commented on this bee yet. I would like to know too. Maybe if you move these images to ID request for a while something will happen. After that I would end up placing them in Halictidae, since that much seems to be certain.

… Beatriz Moisset, 15 January, 2008 - 10:46am

Thanks Beatriz

I'll move them as you suggest and hope for a confirmation or correction.

… Aaron Schusteff, 16 January, 2008 - 10:00pm