Summer Garden Bees of Portland

Lasioglossum zephyrus is a sweat bee of the family Halictidae, found in the U.S. and Canada. It appears in the literature primarily under the misspelling "zephyrum". It is considered a primitively eusocial bee (meaning that they do not have a permanent division of labor within colonies), although it may be facultatively solitary (i.e., displaying both solitary and eusocial behaviors). The species nests in underground burrows and has been observed forcing open unbloomed flower less ↑

Lasioglossum cressonii (Robertson, 1890) are part of the genus sweat bees Lasioglossum that come from a diverse subfamily Halictidae. Halictidae exhibit eusocial hierarchy behavior which is interesting given that eusociality in this group is hard to evolve and easy to lose. L. cressonii is found throughout North America. Their diversity makes them a difficult bee to study and there is a bit of dispute over how many subgenera exist. L. cressonii have been shown to be... less ↑