Lasioglossum (Lasioglossum) xanthopus (Kirby, 1802)

Excavator: Ground. Nesting aggregations have been reported, although it often nests singly.

The nest entrance is sometimes turretted. The main burrow is excavated to a depth of about 50cm, and the brood cells are constructed horizontally, branching directly off the main burrow. Each female constructs only a single nest, containing 7-8 cells. The pollen ball is spherical in shape, but is slightly flattened at the poles and is about 4-5mm in diameter. The egg is laid on top of the pollen ball.

Larval development is rapid (about 2 weeks), before pupation. (various authors cited in Pesenko, Banaszak et al., 2000)

Presumed on available evidence to be solitary (L. Packer, pers. comm.) although Pesenko, Banaszak et al. (2000) state that it is probably subsocial. The latter authors even suggest possibly parthenogenesis, believing the males to be very rare (this apparent rarity is almost certainly due to the extremely late flight period of the males).

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