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green sweat bee
green sweat bee (Augochloropsis metallica)
Illinois Status: common, native
Photo © Rob Curtis, The Early Birder
Features and Behaviors
FEATURES
These bees have a shiny, metallic-green appearance and are about one-third of an inch in length. Their tongue is short, so they visit mainly flowers that are open and flat, as opposed to tube-shaped. Like all bees, they have a thick body with the division between the thorax and abdomen easily seen, four wings, hairs, stocky legs, long antennae and eyes on the side of the head.
BEHAVIORS
Green sweat bees feed on the nectar of flowers and the honeydew of aphid colonies. They are active April through September and nest colonially in soil, meaning that many bees use a single entrance in the ground, but branch out to build their own nest. Members of this genus are unusual in that the pollen loaves that they form for their developing larvae to eat are cube-shaped instead of loaf-shaped. This species is active from March to November.
Illinois Range
Taxonomy
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Halictidae
Habitats
Aquatic Habitats
bottomland forests; marshes; peatlands; swamps; wet prairies and fens
Woodland Habitats
bottomland forests; southern Illinois lowlands; upland deciduous forests
Prairie and Edge Habitats
black soil prairie; dolomite prairie; edge; gravel prairie; hill prairie; sand prairie; shrub prairie
