Metallic Green Bees

This genus, which contains more than 40 species, is found only in the Western Hemisphere. While most of the species (26) occur on the continents, the fauna of the West Indies consists of 17 endemic species and none of the continental species extends into these islands. The majority of the continental species (18) are present in North America, although two of these (A. leunculus Vachal and A. nasutus Smith) are also present in South America where ten additional species are found. The fauna in America north of Mexico consists of 12 species with two additional ones (A. leunculus Vachal and A. mexicanus Roberts) expected to be collected here. Unlike the majority of our species whose ranges extend into our area (e.g., A. tyleri Cockerell) or extend south of here (e.g., A. femoratus Crawford), three of our species, A. coloradinus Crawford, A. sericeus (Forster), and A. virescens (Fabricius), are not known to occur south of here. ~Insofar as known, the species of this genus are polyleges of a wide variety of flowers. Some of our species collect pollen in the early morning around sunrise and again in the late afternoon toward sunset (Hurd and Linsley, 1975). A summary of the known biological information for the genus together with observations made in the insectary on three North American species (A. sericeus (Forster), A. splendens (Lepeletier), and A. texanus Cresson) has been published by Roberts (1969). All species of Agapostemon that have been studied exhibit either solitary or communal nesting behavior (Abrams and Eickwort, 1980. Search: Agriculture, Cornell Univ. Agr. Expt. Sta. 1: 17).