Augochlorella pomoniella

Description

Augochlorella pomoniella is a species of sweat bee in the family Halictidae. Augochlorella is a genus in the bee family Halictidae, commonly called sweat bees. They display metallic coloration, ranging from reddish to gold to bluish green, as is typical for other genera in the tribe Augochlorini. Augochlorella are very small sweat bees that are easily confused with the related genus Augochlora but differentiated by the pointed tip of the marginal cell (squared off in Augochlora), an orthogonal epistomal sulcus, and no strong basal lobe on the inner metatibial spur. These features can only be viewed under a microscope. The tribe Augochlorini is distributed between northern Argentina to southern Canada, but mostly concentrated to the tropics of the Americas. They are the most abundant bees in the Neotropical fauna. Only a few species of Augochlorella reach the temperate Nearctic region. Augochlorella striata occurs further north than any other member of the tribe. Augochlorella bees are often eusocial, unlike many other Augochlorini, which are typically either solitary or semisocial. An example of sociality in this genus is Augochlorella aurata which contains a mixture of solitary and social nest foundresses. These fertile colony-establishing females produce an initial brood of 1-2 worker bees, which are female, before switching to a male-biased brood, while others produce males first. Female-biased broods can also occur in both solitary and eusocial nests, but that is less common. In this and other eusocial species, workers are mostly sterile and slightly smaller than their mothers. Augochlorella aurata tends to be solitary at high altitudes and latitudes. It’s also more often solitary in environments where the growing season is shorter, but if the growing season is longer then the species tends to be social. This tendency to base their sociality on the growing season can also be found in other bee species as well as in some species of spiders. A maritime Canadian climate can lead to reduced duration of brood production, fewer workers per nest, and fewer reproductive bees. Additionally, nest foundresses may produce a mixture of workers and reproductively-capable bees based on these conditions.