Halictus (Halictus) rubicundus (Christ, 1791)

Excavator: Ground. This is a eusocial species (Roberts, 1973; Westrich, 1989) often nesting in aggregations, some large and generally in level or gently sloping bare or sparsely vegetated soil. Very large nesting aggregations seem to be more frequently found in northern Britain, rather than further south.

In North America, Yanega (1988) found that in a nesting aggregation of this species two broods were usually reared each season. The first of these consisted of about 5-8 (occasionally up to 15) offspring per nest, some 25% of which were males. Some of the females of this brood remained as workers within their natal nest, but as emergence of this brood progressed others left the nest, mostly to enter diapause elsewhere. The second brood consisted of both sexes, the females all leaving the nest site to enter diapause after mating. Thus, in this locality, the species exhibited both solitary and primitively eusocial behaviour.

Nesting biology has been described by Atwood (1933) and Roberts (1973), the latter figuring a mature nest.

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