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Genus Lasioglossum

Halictidae, ventral - Lasioglossum cressonii - female Bee - Lasioglossum Halictidae - Lasioglossum Halictidae --? - Lasioglossum - female Bee42 - Lasioglossum yellow-footed dark bee - Lasioglossum 140 - Lasioglossum sisymbrii Halictini - Lasioglossum
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees)
Family Halictidae (Sweat, Furrow, Nomiine, and Short-faced Bees)
Subfamily Halictinae (Sweat and Furrow Bees)
Tribe Halictini
Genus Lasioglossum
Pronunciation
laz-ee-oh-GLOSS-um
Explanation of Names
Lasioglossum Curtis 1833
Numbers
~290 spp. in 5 subgenera in our area, ~1760 spp. in 24 subgenera worldwide(1)
Subgenus not yet in the guide: Hemihalictus: (monotypic, e. US to ND-NM)(1)
Size
2-8 mm
Identification
Slender, tiny to medium bees, dusky black, dull green or blue, with bands of hair on their abdomen. Some have a red abdomen (Michener 1994). They differ from Halictus by the location of hair bands on the segments of their abdomen. Lasioglossum has bands of hair on the innermost portion of each segment, whereas Halictus has bands of hair on the outermost portion of each segment (apical).

Identifying Lasioglossum to species is difficult because they look similar. Often the differences between species is the density of punctuations on the thorax and the surface texture between the punctuations. (2)
Range
worldwide (Discover Life Map)(1)
Food
They forage on a wide variety of flowers for pollen and nectar, they are generalists.
Life Cycle
Male and female
Female in nest
Probably only fertilized females overwinter.
Remarks
Some are cleptoparasites, some are nocturnal and some are oligolectic. They range from solitary to communal, semi-social and primitively eusocial.
They are very common at flowers, but usually not noticed because of their small size.
Print References
A key to the eastern species of subgenus dialictus can be found in Gibbs, J. 2011. Revision of the metallic Lasioglossum (Dialictus) of eastern North America (Hymenoptera: Halictidae: Halictini.) Zootaxa.(3)
Also in the outdated but still useful Mitchell (1960) https://projects.ncsu.edu/cals/entomology/museum/downloads/Halictidae.pdf.
A key to Lasioglossum s.s. (4)