Sweat bees are here

Sweat bees are amazing.

You do need a trained eye to recognize them.

I'm still learning and usually don't realize what they are until I zoom into photos.

This little bee for example, in the California alba poppy above, looks almost like a honey bee.

But it is much smaller.

I had to do some research to figure out what this miniature "honey bee" really is.

It definitely is a sweat bee.

Up until now I only recognized Ultra Green Sweat Bees in the garden every summer.

They have a very distinctive metallic green color.

And they are always attracted to Klondike or Sulphur Orange cosmos flowers, and poppies.

At first glance I thought this was a tiny carpenter bee.

It actually is a sweat bee, and appears to be a Tiny Metallic Sweat Bee male Lasioglossum (Dialictus).

Sweat bees earned their common name because of their tendency to land on skin to drink perspiration for the salt and moisture content. They only sting if they are disturbed.