» Lasioglossum puncticolle
Lasioglossum puncticolle (Morawitz,1872)
A southern restricted species: Dorset to Kent and north to Suffolk. Abroad, found widely in the western Palaearctic from Britain and Spain to Iran and the Urals.
Not listed in Shirt (1987), but given as Notable B (now known as Nationally Scarce Nb) by Falk (1991).
Often found in open, broad-leaved woodland but also associated with coastal land slips, soft-rock cliffs and estuarine fore-shores.
Univoltine; early April to early October.
The only documented pollen source in Britain is that of wild carrot (Daucus carota), but Asteraceae and Ranunculaceae are also reported abroad (Falk 1991). Beavis (pers. comm. 2006) has seen females pollen-gathering at fleabane (Pulicaria dysenterica), thistles (Cirsium spp.) and yellow Asteraceae, and also on occasions visiting dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) and buttercups (Ranunculus spp.). Both sexes have been seen at scabious (Knautia arvensis), and males at hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium). Reported to be polylectic, preferring Asteraceae (Pesenko et al. 2000).
A solitary mining bee. Nests are dug in clayey soil, sometimes with a turret above the entrance.The cells are arranged along the sides of the burrow, often in a cluster without a surrounding chamber.
Will visit a wide range of flowers for nectar.
No Sphecodes cleptoparasites have been reported from L. puncticolle.
G W Allen.