pure green sweat bee

LC - Least Concern

NNR - Unranked

not listed

Pure green sweat bee is a moderately-sized, solitary, metallic green, halictid bee. It occurs in the United States east of the Great Plains, and in adjacent Canadian provinces. It is common in the eastern two-thirds of Minnesota where it reaches the western extent of its range.

Males and females are the same size, 5 ⁄16″ long.

The head, thorax, and abdomen are bright metallic green, sometimes with a coppery tint, sometimes just coppery, rarely blue. The upper margin of the clypeus does not extend the width of the face, but is intruded upon by lobes of the plate above it (epistome). The body is covered with erect whitish hairs. Each abdominal segment has a very narrow dark margin but the abdomen is not conspicuously striped.

The head is covered with relatively short hairs. The face above the upper lip (clypeus) is shiny and moderately covered with well-spaced, shallow pits. The tongue is short. The last segment of the tongue (glossa) is short and pointed. The antennae are black. Below each antennal socket there is a single vertical groove (suture).

The wings are smoky brown and clear. The lobe at the base of the hindwing (jugal lobe) is longer than the submedian cell. The marginal cell of the wing is squared off (truncate) at the end. There are three submarginal cells, the first one longer than the third. The basal vein is strongly arched. The structure at the base each the wing (tegula) is dark brown and oval.

The legs are brown and brownish-black with short hairs. The female has a scopa, a dense patch of longer, branched hairs used to collect pollen, on the fourth segment (tibia). The male lacks this modification.

Total length: 5 ⁄16″

Woodlands and nearby thickets and pastures.

Two or three generations per year: April to October

Males patrol an established route, flying quickly and continuously between specific flowers.

The overwintered mated female emerges in April. Using an existing insect burrow in dead wood as a starting point, she digs a nest consisting of many branched burrows. She places a pollen ball and nectar in each burrow then lays a single egg on the pollen ball. The first generation offspring emerge as adults in June. By the end of June they have constructed their own nests. The larvae or pupa of the last generation overwinter and emerge as adults the following spring. Adult females overwinter beneath rotting logs in a state of diapause. Males die in the fall.

Nests may be placed close together but they do not interconnect. Females do not cooperate with others in raising the young.

Flower pollen and nectar

Pollen and nectar of at least 41 species of flowering plants, especially maple in early spring.

Sources

7, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82.

Very common and widespread

Pure green sweat bee on meadow hawkweed

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Albany, NY

Location: Hackensack MN

Keep seeing these guys around my yard, very pretty and friendly. One of them sat on my finger while I removed it from my house.

Location: just west of Houston, MN

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota

Location: Woodbury, Minnesota