iHalictidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Subphylum: Hexapoda Class: Insecta Order: Hymenoptera Suborder: Apocrita Superfamily: Apoidea Family: Halictidae
Subfamilies
Halictinae Nomiinae Nomioidinae Rophitinae

Halictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance. Several species are all or partly green and a few are red; a number of them have yellow markings, especially the males, which commonly possess yellow faces, a pattern widespread among the various families of bees. They are commonly referred to as sweat bees (especially the smaller species), as they are often attracted to perspiration; when pinched, females can give a minor sting. Halictid bee. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is how biologists group and categorize extinct and living species of organisms. ... Phyla Subregnum Parazoa Porifera Subregnum Eumetazoa Placozoa Orthonectida Rhombozoa Radiata (unranked) Ctenophora Cnidaria Bilateria (unranked) Acoelomorpha Myxozoa Superphylum Deuterostomia Chordata Hemichordata Echinodermata Chaetognatha Xenoturbellida Superphylum Ecdysozoa Kinorhyncha Loricifera Priapulida Nematoda Nematomorpha Onychophora Tardigrada Arthropoda Superphylum Platyzoa Platyhelminthes Gastrotricha Rotifera Acanthocephala Gnathostomulida Micrognathozoa Cycliophora Superphylum Lophotrochozoa Sipuncula Nemertea Phoronida Ectoprocta Bryozoa... Subphyla and Classes Subphylum Trilobitomorpha Trilobita - trilobites (extinct) Subphylum Chelicerata Arachnida - spiders,scorpions, etc. ... Classes & Orders Class Insecta (insects) Unplaced orders:    Order Diplura    Order Collembola (springtails)    Order Protura The subphylum Hexapoda constitutes the largest (in terms of number of species) grouping of arthropods and includes the insects as well as a few much smaller groups of wingless arthropods closely related to insects: Collembola, Protura... Orders See taxonomy Insects are invertebrates that are taxonomically referred to as the class Insecta. ... Suborders Apocrita Symphyta Many families, see article Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. ... Superfamilies Apoidea Ceraphronoidea Chalcidoidea Chrysidoidea Cynipoidea Evanioidea Ichneumonoidea Megalyroidea Proctotrupoidea Sphecoidea Stephanoidea Triganalyoidea Vespoidea Many families, see article Apocrita is a suborder of insects in the order Hymenoptera. ... Families Andrenidae Anthophoridae Apidae Colletidae Ctenoplectridae Halictidae Heterogynaidae Megachilidae Melittidae Oxaeidae Sphecidae Stenotritidae This article is about the insect. ... A cosmopolitan distribution is a term applied to a biological category of living things meaning that this category can be found anywhere around the world. ... Suborders Apocrita Symphyta Many families, see article Hymenoptera is one of the larger orders of Insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. ... Families Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Halictidae Megachilidae Melittidae Stenotritidae Bee collecting pollen Bees (a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila) are flying insects, closely related to wasps and ants. ... Sweat bee is the common name for bees that are attracted to pollen and the salt in human perspiration. ... Sweating (also called perspiration or sometimes transpiration) is the loss of a watery fluid, consisting mainly of sodium chloride and urea in solution, that is secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals. ...

Nesting

Most halictids nest in the ground, though a few nest in wood, and they mass-provision their young (a mass of pollen and nectar is formed inside a waterproof cell, an egg laid upon it, and the cell is sealed off, so the larva is given all of its food at one time, as opposed to "progressive provisioning", where a larva is fed repeatedly as it grows, as in honeybees). All species are pollen feeders and may be important pollinators. A basket style nest A nest is place of refuge built to hold an animals eggs and/or provide a place to raise their offspring. ... Species Apis andreniformis Apis cerana, or eastern honey bee Apis dorsata, or giant honey bee Apis florea Apis koschevnikovi Apis laboriosa Apis mellifera, or western honey bee Apis nigrocincta Apis nuluensis Honey bees are a subset of bees which represent a far smaller fraction of bee diversity than most people... SEM image of pollen grains from a variety of common plants: sunflower (Helianthus annuus), morning glory (Ipomoea purpurea), hollyhock (Sidalcea malviflora), lily (Lilium auratum), primrose (Oenothera fruticosa), and castor bean (Ricinus communis). ... A pollinator is the agent that moves pollen from the male anthers of a flower to the female stigma of a flower to accomplish fertilization or syngamy of the female gamete in the ovule of the flower by the male gamete from the pollen grain. ...

Notable species

Eusocial species

Many species in the subfamily Halictinae are eusocial at least in part, with fairly well-defined queen and worker castes (though not the same as the caste system in honeybees), and certain manifestations of their social behavior appear to be facultative in various lineages. This section does not cite its references or sources. ... Species Apis andreniformis Apis cerana, or eastern honey bee Apis dorsata, or giant honey bee Apis florea Apis koschevnikovi Apis laboriosa Apis mellifera, or western honey bee Apis nigrocincta Apis nuluensis Honey bees are a subset of bees which represent a far smaller fraction of bee diversity than most people...

Cleptoparasite species

Species in the genus Sphecodes are somewhat wasp-like in appearance and live as cleptoparasites of other bees, including other halictids; the female Sphecodes enters the cell with the provision mass, eats the host egg, and lays an egg of her own in its place. Only a few other genera and species of halictids are parasitic. Suborder Symphyta Apocrita See text for families. ... Kleptoparasitism or cleptoparasitism (literally, parasitism by theft) is a form of feeding where one animal takes prey from another that has caught, killed, or otherwise prepared it, including stored food provisions, as in the case of cuckoo bees, which lay their eggs on the pollen masses made by other bees. ...

List of North American genera

Rophitinae:

• Conanthalictus
• Dufourea
• Micralictoides
• Protodufourea
• Sphecodosoma
• Xeralictus

Nomiinae:

• Dieunomia
• Nomia

Halictinae: In biology, Nomia is a genus of sweat bees within the family Halictidae. ...

• Agapostemon
• Augochlora
• Augochlorella
• Augochloropsis
• Dialictus
• Evylaeus
• Halictus
• Lasioglossum
• Mexalictus
• Sphecodes
• Temnosoma

Agapostemon sp. (Halictinae)

A halictid bee

Systropha planidens (Rophitinae)

A tiny bee on a towel

Iridescent green sweat bee1. ... Iridescent green sweat bee1. ... Sweat bee on dandelion from http://www. ... Sweat bee on dandelion from http://www. ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (621x645, 76 KB) Systropha planidens, male, own picture, June 2005, Germany, File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Halictidae ... Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (621x645, 76 KB) Systropha planidens, male, own picture, June 2005, Germany, File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Halictidae ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1034x873, 154 KB) I took this photo myself. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (1034x873, 154 KB) I took this photo myself. ...

External links

• Everything About the Sweat Bee - Description and photo of the sweat bee.
• Image Gallery from Gembloux

References

• Engel, M.S. (2000) Classification of the bee tribe Augochlorini (Hymenoptera: Halictidae). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 250: 1-89.
• Grimaldi, D. and Engel, M.S. (2005). Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-82149-5.