I was picking flowers in our garden when I noticed this stunning metallic green insect. It is on the large, white zinnia.
Shall we take a closer look?
And then I made the mistake of exhaling, and it fell off, not to bee found in the green vegetation beeneath. Apparently, it was so still beecause it was dead!
I sent the pictures to my resource at UF who referred it to a bee/wasp specialist. He/she bee-lieves it to bee a halictid bee; it could be a female Agapostemon, or either sex of Augochlora, Augochloropsis, or Augochlorella. At any rate, the more common name is sweat bee.
The family Halictidae is divided into more than 2000 species. They vary quite a bit in colors and patterns. They are pollen feeders and may play a significant role in pollination. A few species are attracted to sweat, and will sometimes sting if disturbed, though the sting is reportedly not very painful
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