Images

Lasioglossum sopinci lives in sand deserts in Eastern North America.

Lasioglossum sopinci, the undescribed male of this sand specialist, found along some lovely powerline...

Lasioglossum sopinci, the undescribed male of this sand specialist, found along some lovely powerline habitat on Patuxent Wildlife Research Refuge

Lasioglossum sopinci, male

From Bryce Canyon National Park comes a small Lasioglossum, similar to many other species of this specious genus. Western in distribution I know actually nothing about its life. Picture by Brooke Alexander.

A very southern Lasioglossum, this one sneaking up the coast only about as far as this site on Cumberland Island National Seashore.

Lasioglossum tamiamense is a small, very southern, bee of the sweat bee the variety. It's one of those subtleties of identification that taxonomists spend a lot of time on, but doesn't involve a whole lot of other people.

Nacogodoches County, texas, Big Thicket National Preserve

From one of the coastal National Parks in St. John's County in Florida comes a lovely red-legged Lasioglossum tarponense. I think of this species as a sand specialist...living in the Florida scrubby sand coastal pine matrix that forms an important part of the natural matrix of the region behind the sand dunes.

Joan Milam collected this particular Lasioglossum. Darn if it doesn't look like all the rest of them. Photography by Brooke Alexander. Photography Information: Canon Mark II 5D, Zerene Stacker, Stackshot Sled, 65mm Canon MP-E 1-5X macro lens, Twin Macro Flash in Styrofoam Cooler, F5.0, ISO 100, Shutter Speed 200.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, collected by Stephanie Wilson at the Morris Arboretum

Check out the large ocelli on this bad boy. This is Lasioglossum texanum, a dusk loving bee that is out late when the Oenothera (evening primroses) bloom. This is a male, and was found in South Dakota in Badlands National Park.

From Fossil Butte National Monument Wyoming...yet another Lasioglossum. Photo by Dejen Mengis.

From Fossil Butte National Monument Wyoming...yet another Lasioglossum. Photo by Dejen Mengis.

A bee of western North America. This one was captured in Bryce Canyon National Park, one of the larger "sensu strictu" group of Lasioglossums.

Lasioglossum truncatum, Maryland

A male, with great, long antennae, the yellow tarsal segments are distinctive in conjuction with the yellow on the clypeus and the slightly weakened veins in the wings. Collected by Tim McMahon and photoed by Dejen Mengis

A male, with great, long antennae, the yellow tarsal segments are distinctive in conjuction with the yellow on the clypeus and the slightly weakened veins in the wings. Collected by Tim McMahon and photoed by Dejen Mengis

Here is a bee that clearly loves woodlands: Lasioglossum versans. In the obscure morphological vernacular of tiny sweat bees, I identify it by its tiny bulging purple "nose" (supraclypeus) and its complete lack of a hair fan on the base of T1.

One of the common Dialictus group Lasioglossum species, often involved in confusion among several similar species. This one collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County Maryland

One of the common Dialictus group Lasioglossum species, often involved in confusion among several similar species. This one collected by Tim McMahon in Cecil County Maryland