Stats

Lifespan

A few weeks

Size

Medium

Diet

Herbivore

Activity

Diurnal

Social

Solitary

Biome

Temperate grassland

Range

North America

Movement

Flight

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Venom

Status

Common

About

A brilliant metallic-green sweat bee found across North America, the males and females look strikingly different: females are solid green head-to-abdomen, while males have a green head and thorax paired with a black-and-yellow striped abdomen. Despite the name, it nests in the ground rather than in wood, often in aggregations of many individual burrows.

Life cycle

1. 1.
   egg

   A small egg is laid on or near the larval food source and hatches within days or weeks.
2. 2.
   juvenile

   An immature insect feeds and molts, growing through successive instars.
3. 3.
   subadult

   A near-adult insect has wing buds or near-mature form, one molt away from full size.
4. 4.
   adult

   Fully grown, with full wings and adult coloration.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Arthropoda

Class

Insecta

Order

Hymenoptera

Family

Halictidae

Genus

Agapostemon

Species

Agapostemon virescens