ENY 3005 Family Identification

Hymenoptera: Halictidae Pronunciation: hah-LICK-ti-dee Common names: halictid bees, sweat bees

Identifying characteristics for the family Halictidae include:

• As in other families of the superfamily Apoidea, members of the family Halictidae have:
• a collarlike pronotum without projections that reach the tegulae,
• body hairs that are branched or plumose, and
• first segment of the metatarsus often enlarged and flattened.
• 1 subantennal suture (andrenid bees have 2).
• Front wing with basal vein strongly arched.
• Hind wing with jugal lobe longer than the submedian cell.
• Thorax of some species metallic green like the chrysidid wasps, but halictids lack the sculptured cuticle and the ability to curl.

• Most of the 500 species in North America are pollen feeders and important pollinators.
• Species in the genus Sphecodes are wasplike in appearance and live as cleptoparasites of other bees.
• Some black-bodied halictids are attracted to perspiration and are known as sweat bees.

References:

• Page 356 and plate 16 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Page 388 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Page 729 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 597-600 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.

Links to other web sites

• Bee Species of South Florida. - A guide to the identification and biology of the Apoidea of the region.
• Solitary Bees - Gordon's Insect World