Halictus male?

[JRsbugs]

Hi,

This looks like a Halictus male to me, leg colouring matches H. rubicundus but I don't think it's that and I'm not sure if the wings have a reddish tint.

Is it reconisable to anyone?

Taken on 11th August 2009 on Ragwort, a tiny thing.

Janet

[Jason Green]

Evening Janet,

Yes, it has a ring of Halictus to me too. Now, rubicundus looks good - just not as green, and with minorly-different antennae. Have you considered a male Halictus tumulorum? That's greenish and has pale/orangish legs, and... OK, where's Stuart?

Take care,

Jason

[JRsbugs]

I guess Halictus tumulorum is a possibilty as I had the female I think!

Yes, I wonder where Stuart is? This might be too difficult to put a definite name to anyway, but the abdomen shape looks good, so do the legs. I don't know if the time is right though, the female was mid April.

There's a pic of a male on BWARS.

Halictus tumulorum

[Jason Green]

Originally Posted by JRsbugs

...but the abdomen shape looks good, so do the legs.]

...don't, you'll make him blush

Where was I? Ah yes, if you think you had the female then it's more likely perhaps.

You've put up a nice selection so far - I think I'm going to look for a few more bee species this year! I've deliberately over-looked the tiny black ones you see trying to bury themselves out of camera-sight in Dandelions until now - I think I'll have a look for those. They always seem so indistinctive...

Maybe Stuart will return when the season really gets under-way. Perhaps he's still hibernating...

[JRsbugs]

Aha! I was looking at the other pics on BWARS, noticed the wing colour on Lasioglossum morio is reddish but I can't find any pics of a male.

My male does have a reddish wing tint! I also had a very likely Lasioglossum morio female (agreed by Stuart), which has a reddish tint to the wings! I'll load up a pic.

[JRsbugs]

Here's two different dates for female Lasioglossum morio (group), 12th & 21st June which is closer to the time. I bet it's a male of that group!

Red tinted wings!

These are tiny things Jason, I once fished one out of a bowl of water, it was amazingly small when you get it on your finger. It flew off so I didn't get that one's pic but it could be one I got later.

[JRsbugs]

I've been able to post again on HYMIS, this one is a Lasioglossum male and L. calceatum can't be ruled out.

I was beginning to lean towards a small L. calceatum, such a difficult lot.

[tigger]

Gosh, I'd never have guessed L. calceatum it looks totally different from the ones in my garden last summer (red band around middle - male I think) - it's amazing how much variation there is. I agree, tiny little things. Mine were on dandelion last year.

[JRsbugs]

It's not necessarily L. calceatum but could be. I spent so long looking at all the pics I have of both L. calceatum and L. leucozonium males to see what the differences are, eventually I started to see the head shape of this one was similar to L. calceatum.

L. leucozonium males have a more convex shaped clypeus with pale yellow on the apical part of the clypeus (calceatum has a yellow band at the bottom), they also generally look more black but they are both very variable. You need a good view of the head profile and face really to be able to tell. L. leucozonium has smaller mandibles too.

I don't think L. leucozonium males generally have so much red on the abdomen, but L. calceatum males are very variable. It looks to me like L. leucozonium males are a little bigger too.

Discover Life -- Lasioglossum identification guide & checklist

Unfortunately there is no L. calceatum description on there.

[tigger]

Not sure if this will be any help but this was a L leucozonium that I had ID'd last year by Stuart



It does have the "look" of your insect...