#dialictus

If anyone has any more clue as to what species this one might be I'd appreciate the insight!

This isn't the usual way to mount tiny bees, usually they're just pointed, but I had extra time with this one so I doublemounted it. Takes more time and riskier to break off parts, but in the end I find it way easier to look at the different characters like this without having to turn and tilt the specimen as much.

Lasioglossum tenax.  A northern species, in general, but this particular one found at the southern edge of its range in the mountains of North Carolina.  Range-wise you will find (if you were to look) L. tenax from Newfoundland to Alaska and down the spine of the Rockies where it stops about the same latitude as it does in Appalachia.  The food for this bee, of course, is pollen, which, if you recall, comes from flowers.  Now then, the flowers in Appalachia are for sure unsimilar to those in Alaska and the Rockies.  So, does that mean L. tenax is unpicky about its pollen?  Probably not, probably, as is suspected for most of these Dialictusy Lasioglossums, they should be generalists.  All sorts of pollen should be ok.  So, then what limits them?  Why, for example, don't they hang out in Fort Lauderdale, Austin, or Petaluma?  And why are there so many of these Lasioglossum generalists running around in the same place?  Why don't they just compete each other up?  Maybe there is just so much pollen out there that multiple generalists can co-exist on the same food sources?  What exactly is the niche here for these things?  So many Lasioglossum species just should not exist in one place, (metaphorically this is similar to the apocryphal story that bumbles should theoretically should not be able to fly). Why are we going to Mars when we can't even figure out the Lasioglossum problem?  8 "?"s today.  Might be a record.

Base-banded furrow bee of the subgenus Dialictus, seen here on an ornamental onion (Allium sp.). These often abundant bees are abundantly overlooked due to their very tiny size. This female was fascinating to watch as she flew the few feet back and forth from her nest burrow to this flower for much of the day. ~~~~~~#furrowbee #sweatbee #dialictus #allium #pollinators

Sweat bee of the Lasioglossum genus, subgenus Dialictus. Good golly, the name sweat bee has got to go. Books claim they land on you when you’re sweaty. My decades long experiment in hard labor in the garden has not seen a single sweat thirsty sweat bee pay me a visit. Words matter, names matter. Someday when a sweat bee species is found endangered it will be a tough sell to save it, mainly due to its name. Sorry I don’t have a recommendation on a replacement, only complaints. Any ideas? #lasioglossum #dialictus #dandelion #bees #bugs #insects #macro #canonmacro #insects_of_our_world #mat_macro #kings_insects #found_on_flowers #macro_freaks #top_macro #macroclique #tgif_insects #macro_kings #photooftheday #beesofinstagram #pocket_insects #macro_brilliance #macro_perfection #top_macro #macro_highlight #macro_spotlight #electric_macro #igmw_macro

These tiny bees, a solitary species, make burrows in the cracked concrete steps leading to our front porch. I never paid them much attention until I watched this contest play out the other day.

I scrolled through my entire feed without seeing a plant photo, so here’s a Dialictus bee getting nasty with a Zizia flower. You’re welcome :)

These bees are notoriously difficult to identify. There are more than 290 species in the US and Canada and approximately 1700 species worldwide. Most Sweat Bees (family Halictidae) in our area fall into this mega-Genus. Look for them anywhere and anytime there are flowers blooming. You’re bound to see at least a half dozen species of Halictids on any given summer day!