#lawnify

The Lawn Bee.  Lasioglossum imitatum.  If you are looking for bees in any urban/suburban/highly disturbed habitat in the East, you will find this bee.  Small even for a Lasioglossum, it loves whatever conditions it loves about lawns and beat up habitats.  A survivor, a crow and sparrow bee that surely is not on the list of declining bees species.  To save this bee you should put in a ball diamond.  Would it be so easy for the rest of the species.  Probably fond of small invasive fast food pollen, I am not sure how much quantification there has been of its diet.  Id wise, it has wide cheeks and tiny thick bright white prostrate hairs on its abdomen that occur in nice parallel lines (not too obvious in this series of shots).  Picture by Erick Hernandez.      

State Agriculture Bulletins talk about "Controlling" this tough beauty.  Native, rugged individualist, creator of ground cover with its own distinct specialist bee (Andrena viola) in its own genus.  What's not to like here?  Oh, that's right the, I forgot about the existence of lawn privilege ... fescue only,  diversity is a bad thing.  Specimen and photo by Helen Lowe Metzman.