photograph by Douglas A. Burkett

All photos public domain, use as you wish.

We left out a flower and a metallic sweat bee (Augochloropsis sp.) came to visit.

the sweat bees are finally emerging! my favorite native bee c:

The people have spoken!  More Scutums.  A few pictures ago we showed the ultragreen back (aka the scutum) section of Augochlora pura indicating that with the right mojo you could tell this species from the similarish genus Augochlorella with but a glance.  And.  We did not show you a picture of the scuticular characteristics of an Augochlorella because no on had taken that picture.  So, today Elizabeth Panner has obliged the thousands of people who have been clamoring for just that picture.  So, let's look at this Augoclamorella picture and compare (use the little mid-line trough on the scutum as reference, it points to the head (why a bee has this line is mysterious, its not used hardly at all as a character to separate one species from another in bee taxonomy and it just might be the case that all species have this line (someone idle should look at all the bee species in the world to verify this))).  Alright, so, in contrast to the uniform plain of equallishly spaced pits in A.p., A.a. starts out in quite a similar pitted pattern, but as you move towards the head you see the pits begin to coalesce, lapping one another until, in their lapping frenzy, they devolve into a glittering moonscape of cratered metallic topography.  So, now you know that you need only glance at the always-easy-to-find-under-the-microscope back of a small green bee to smugly self-validate your superiority to the rest of the human race.  You do have to eliminate equally green Agapostemon and Augochloropsis, but you already know how to do that.

Metallic Sweat Bee on blooming Brittlebush yesterday #sweatbee #augochloropsis #bees #brittlebush (at San Jacinto Wildlife Area) https://www.instagram.com/p/CK4CqplhGPr/?igshid=25mou5ynfea5

AUGOCHLOROPSIS BEE by americanocwb https://flic.kr/p/2k3eczX