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Metallic sweat bee (female)

Agapostemon sp.

Photo by textless
Published on Project Noah
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36.9537, -107.45

Field Notes

Description:

I saw a few of these green bees last weekend, but this was the first one to stay still long enough to get clear photos. It was feeding on flowers in a dry creek bed in a high desert area.

Species ID Suggestions

Metallic sweat bee (female)

Agapostemon sp.

Comments (18)

Females of many species of Agapostemon do *not* have bands on the abdomen. Furthermore, they are usually hairier than the other genera of metallic bees (in the Augochlorini tribe of Halictidae). Euglossa bees do not occur in the U.S. except for an introduced species now established in Florida.
They're generally fast, and don't stay on any particular flower for long. This one was pretty calm. It might have helped that it was a cool morning and there weren't many flowers for it to choose from.
I was in Sedona on Saturday and saw several of these bees, but could not get a photo! :(
Thanks for the kind words... the little bee was a lot of fun to watch. :)
Nice shot, looks like the sweat bee that was pollinating my chola flowers this summer.
wow! wonderful colors and great details, my compliments!
Well, Agapostemon typically have white bands on the abdomen (but not always), but Halictid plain green bees are extremely hard to identify even between genus. It´s something people hate about insects, is usually necesary to use an Stereoscope for making an identification.
Thanks Juan... Agapostemon is my best guess on this one, but I'm definitely open to suggestions.
Impressive picture!. Just remember not all the green metalic bees are Agapostemon genus, it´s actually a common caracteristic on many Halictid genus and species, and even on other bee families like Apidae (Euglossini)
Thanks! I like these bees because of their vivid colors, and their faces are oddly cute.
Is very pretty! before Noah I did not know that bees so different with such colors existed.
Thanks dandoucette - I was pretty excited about the bee. :)

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