Anyone has objections?
I found mine feeding on a flower of the compositae family, forgot which one as it's so long ago. Picture is taken on 28th September 2007 near the Belgian-Dutch coast area.
I tried to give a link to a pict of it in BWARS but it didn't work.
This message was edited Nov 24, 2008 6:08 PM
This message was edited Nov 24, 2008 6:16 PM
another pic..
It looks like it to me!
I had the same one, only saw it briefly once and it was in a shaded dahlia flower. I would like to see it again so I can get a better pic.
http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/4847/
http://www.bwars.com/Lasioglossum_calceatum.htm
Having now seen the female on this site I may have had that too, not sure if I still have the pics though, will have to sift through this year's pics.
http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Bees/SpBees/Lasioglossum.calceatum.html
I found one of this year's pics which might be the female! I had it temporarily marked as something else, but it surely does look like this one. It's a shame the female is not as easy as the male, lol, perhpas I had best go for expert judgement if I can get an answer.
I hae several angles and the face on one matches well, but this pic shows most of it. This was on 12th May and the earliest is April.
Thanks wallaby! Yes that's the one I found on the BWARS site.
So yours you've already entered in BF and mine are both males.
Your female bee has indeed a striking likeness to the one of Unimaas!
The female looks so different one would think it's a different specie! How tricky!
I'm not so sure about this one now, I had remembered seeing another similar one before when I was looking for mine. I found it again, Andrena labiata female looks a better bet for yours. Even though the face isn't visible the back of the abdomen shows slight differences, with larger black marks having no blak spots on the sides. See how tricky they are, lol!
http://www.bwars.com/andrena_labiata.htm
EEk! I see you have already added your images, the other ones you have make it more certain to me to be Andrena labiata as the head and thorax can be seen.
Looking again at the pic of L. calceatum on bwars it could be either, lol!
I checked and rechecked again until I got dizzy, lol!
I still feel more resemblance with L. calceatum than with Andrena labiata for yours and both of mine....
This text from my insect book says the following about Andrena labiata;
"Feeds almost exclusively on Veronica flowers. Flying period is from May to June. male with white hairs on the legs, female light yellow hairs."
(my pictures where both taken in late September, so out of the flying season for this specie)
The picture of BWARS doesn't show these narrow white-haired bands on the abdomen of the male or it's hard to notice because one sees only the side of it. I also see a difference in the legs of both A.labiata and L. calceatum the latter having pale legs and dark thighs and something like a pale 'knee' on the hind legs I miss in the other one.
Time is important, and a good book can be invaluable!
garden Safari has better pictures of Andrena labiata then BWARS;
http://www.gardensafari.net/english/picpages/andrena_labiata.htm
Its legs look very hairy!
But here it states that its also frequently seen on other types of flowers..
The male of Andren labiata is much shorter and chubbier than the female, which looks more like the male Lasioglossum calceatum. Theirs pics look to be all males.
I would stay with the first ID if the time fits, lol, if all else fails that is the only thing you can go on.
Adding that hairs can be tricky as they lose them as well as fading occurs with time.
This message was edited Nov 25, 2008 6:52 PM
I think my female bee is too big for L. calceatum, I found another which it is more likely to be, lol, some pics on other sites are just not correct. Andrena dorsata:
http://www.bwars.com/andrena_dorsata.htm
