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Photo#141534
Chrysidid ? - Agapostemon - female

Chrysidid ? - Agapostemon - Female
Aromas, San Benito County, California, USA
August 30, 2007
Size: ~ 10 mm
I've seen one of these guys briefly for the last three days on a cone flower in our garden (live oak/chaparral habitat). Today I was finally able to get 3 shots of him before he left; he was being harassed by a Bembix type wasp (which I photographed a couple of days ago) who thought he owned the cone flower. Earlier two of the Bembix types were discussing ownership of the flower.

Images of this individual: tag all
Chrysidid ? - Agapostemon - female Chrysidid ? - Agapostemon - female Chrysidid ? - Agapostemon - female

Best Dressed
The combo of the eyes and body color...wow. Makes me wish we had our own version of the Oscars on this site. Maybe the Oscaridae! ;) That incredible red moth this last week and now this guy.

Sorry I'm no help on ID...just admiring the suit!

bee
while i am no good with bees, Halictid it is. Chrysidids would not need all that pollen you see on the legs in your fine picture. someone should be able to say what genus it is for sure... if not better. also, on the wasp, i think Richard was correct, it looks like a Steniolia... Bembicine is a safe place to move it in any case.

I still
am far from familiar with Chrysidids, and am not confident in my ability to distinguish them from Halictids. However, yours looks remarkably similar to Agapostemon, a Halictid shown here:



Again, though, I'm nowhere close to even knowing genera of either family, or being able to tell the metallic ones apart. I'm sure there are probably Chrysidids that look a lot like yours, too. Just thought I'd take a stab, though.

 
Thanks J.R.
In the back of my mind I knew there are two families of bees/wasps that are metallic, but it's been ~40 years since my one & only entomology class. When I saw the photos of Chrysidids on this site, I didn't even look at the Halictids. Thanks for the ID help.

 
Yes, female Agapostemon sp.
Agapostemon are generally a bit hairier than bees in the Augochlorini, and far hairier than any chrysidid:-)

 
Thanks Eric
Thanks for the ID help, I'm hoping to get better photos if one of these returns to the cone flower in our garden. I'll move these to Agapostemon.

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