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Photo#120483
Metallic beauty... - Agapostemon - female

Metallic beauty... - Agapostemon - Female
Espanola, Algoma district, Ontario, Canada
June 21, 2007
Size: 0.5in
At about 3pm I found this little guy(or girl?) drowning in my dogs pool, I always rescue anything floating in there daily so I fished him out on a blade of grass and put him on the table to take some pictures.He/she fanned its wings for a while and dried itself out, its antennae were stuck to its head and all dishevelled so it groomed itself and rearranged its wings and such while taking a few small test flights on the table. It didnt seem aggressive or anything and was quite docile when I prompted it to get on the blade of grass and back on the table when he fell off before I could take a pic.. I snapped a few shots of him on a red jar lid before he was dry enough to take off for good. Hopefully someone can help me identify this beautiful metallic would be drowning victim. The surrounding habitat is Boreal forest, my yard is rather like a dry, sandy field with mixed wildflowers and several Box elder trees and a large Red pine. The location is Northeastern Ontario, Canada.

Images of this individual: tag all
Metallic beauty... - Agapostemon - female Metallic beauty... - Agapostemon - female

Moved
Moved from Sweat Bees.

Sweat bee?
Not an expert, but those legs look much too large and hairy to be a cuckoo wasp and the body shape doesn't look right to me either. This specimen reminds me much more of a sweat bee (Family Halictidae)
Here's an image for comparison:

 
Thanks!
It sure does look like a sweat bee! Pretty little critter too, any way to tell male from female?

 
Female.
This specimen is a female. males are a bit slimmer, with longer antennae. I'm thinking this might be in the genus Agapostemon, but am not positive.

 
Make that a ditto
Tenative Agapostemon, but I erred on this last time out.

 
I also think it is
Agapostemon

but its not easy to tell from the photo

 
FYI, KellyC
Dr. Ascher is one of our bee experts. (To find out who's who here, click on their name and you'll usually get a brief autobiography.) Eric Eaton, as you may know, is the author of Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America and exceptionally helpful with a broad range of IDs.

 
Very impressed!
I am very impressed by the people here on BugGuide.. Its always a joy to have something identified for me, especially by an expert in the field. Hopefully in the future I can take better photographs to make things easier to conclusively identify. I am very excited to find out that this little bee is a female, and to know it is a sweat bee, and possibly belongs to the genus Agapostemon. I could never hope for more than a vague ID on other sites I have visited! So its nice to have knowledgable people to share what they know! Thanks everyone for your help, it is much appreciated.

Looks like a Cuckoo Wasp to
Looks like a Cuckoo Wasp to me.

Welcome to Bug Guide
You're off to a good start with decent photos and fine narration. We have some really fine bee people here, and they're usually quick to respond with an ID.

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