• Family: Halictidae
• Tribe: Sphecodini
• Approximate # species in region: 30
• Common name: blood bees

Sphecodes are a group of diverse and enigmatic cleptoparasites. Members of this genus are thought to predominately parasitize nests of other ground or wood-nesting halictids, mainly Lasioglossum, but also Halictus, Agapostemon, Augochlorella, and possibly Andrena and Calliopsis. Although genus-level identification of this genus is straightforward–a fairly wasp-like bee with a dark head and thorax, and an abdomen with at least some blood-red integument—the vast majority of species are not known to be identifiable in the field.

Species covered: none