• Family: Halictidae
• Approximate # species in region: 6
• Common name: furrow bees

Halictus is a genus of common bees that includes several widespread and abundant species. All Halictus nest in the ground and exhibit some form of sociality, which means they can be found in most months of the growing season.

Since the four most common types of Halictus in the northeast are all field-identifiable, we recommend becoming familiar with the field marks of each of those particular taxa (3 species and 1 species pair). Halictus as a genus is generally distinguishable from their similar-sized sweat bee relatives Lasioglossum by their hair bands on the rim of the tergites (e.g. a hair band on T1 overhangs the top of T2) – Lasioglossum generally have hair bands on the bases of their tergites, sticking out from under the bare rim of the previous segment. Male Halictus have extensively yellow or orange legs and a thin strip of yellow on bottom of their clypeus.

Regional Species List: