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)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)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)
A key to Lasioglossum s.s.
(4)