Orange-legged furrow bee, Halictus rubicundus, a striped sweat bee with orange hind legs on a yellow flower

Halictus rubicundus, the orange-legged furrow bee. Reinhold Moller (Ermell), CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Halictus rubicundus | Sweat bee Furrow bee Socially variable Ground-nesting

UK Bee Species

Orange-legged Furrow Bee (Halictus rubicundus)

Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791) · family Halictidae

The orange-legged furrow bee is a small, ground-nesting sweat bee with a remarkable trick: in the warm south it lives socially, with a queen and workers, but in the cool north the very same species nests alone. That flexibility has made it one of the most studied bees in the world for understanding how social life evolves. Look for it on bare, sunny banks from spring to autumn. Place it among Britain's bees on the UK Native Bee Species Map, or among the world's bees in the World Bee Atlas.

Quick Facts

Common nameOrange-legged furrow bee

Scientific nameHalictus rubicundus

AuthorityChrist, 1791

FamilyHalictidae (sweat bees)

UK statusWidespread and frequent

SizeAbout 1 cm long

LifestyleSocial in south, solitary in north

ActiveApril to October

NestingIn bare ground, often south-facing

Key featureReddish-orange hind legs

Favourite flowersDaisies and composites

RangeOne of the world's widest of any bee

Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Halictidae
Genus	Halictus
Species	Halictus rubicundus

A sweat bee with orange legs

The orange-legged furrow bee is a member of the Halictidae, the sweat bees, so named because some are drawn to perspiration on warm days. Furrow bees take their name from a fine groove down the tip of the female's abdomen.^[1] This is a fairly small bee, around a centimetre long, dark brown rather than metallic, with neat pale hair bands across the hind margins of the abdominal segments and, as the name promises, reddish-orange hind legs.^[2] Fresh females show a reddish-brown pile on top of the thorax.

One bee, two ways of living

In the warmer south of its range the orange-legged furrow bee is eusocial, with a foundress queen and a brood of workers. In the cooler north the same species nests solitarily, each female working alone. This switch makes it a living model for how social behaviour evolves.^[4]

How to identify the orange-legged furrow bee

Look for a small, striped, brownish bee with thin pale bands at the rear edges of the abdominal segments and rusty-orange hind legs.^[2] Females are most easily confused with the larger furrow bee Lasioglossum xanthopum, but on that species the pale bands sit at the front of each segment rather than the rear.^[1] Males are slimmer, with longer antennae and yellow markings on the face and legs; they can be separated from the very rare Halictus eurygnathus by their entirely dark antennae.^[1] As with most small solitary bees, certain identification can require a close look at a specimen.

The legs give it away: a small, striped, ground-nesting bee with reddish-orange hind legs, dipping in and out of daisy flowers on a sunny bank.

1cm

At only about a centimetre long, the orange-legged furrow bee is easy to overlook, yet it has one of the widest natural ranges of any bee on Earth, spanning Europe, northern Asia and North America.^[2][5]

Nesting, lifecycle and society

Nests are dug in bare or sparsely vegetated ground, typically in light soils on warm, south-facing banks and slopes, either singly or in loose aggregations.^[1] In social populations a mated queen emerges from hibernation in spring and founds a nest, rears a first brood of mostly small workers, and the colony then produces males and new queens towards the end of summer.^[3] Those new queens mate, overwinter, and begin the cycle again. In solitary populations there are no workers at all; each female provisions her own cells.^[4]

Adults are on the wing from April to October. The bee visits a wide range of flowers but shows a clear preference for the daisy family, including ragworts, thistles, knapweeds, mayweeds and dandelions.^[3]

Source conflict

Whether a population is social or solitary is not fixed by geography alone. Transplant experiments have shown that orange-legged furrow bees retain the flexibility to switch strategy with local conditions, so the simple north-equals-solitary, south-equals-social picture is a useful generalisation rather than a hard rule. There is also long-standing debate over whether a second generation is produced in some warm years.^[3][4]

Why it matters

The orange-legged furrow bee is both a useful generalist pollinator of meadow and verge flowers and a scientific treasure. Because the same species can be social or solitary, biologists use it to test ideas about why animals live in groups at all. Practically, it needs two simple things: open, flower-rich grassland for forage, and patches of bare, sunny, well-drained ground to nest in. Leaving a south-facing bank or path edge unplanted, and letting daisies, knapweeds and dandelions flower, gives this bee exactly what it needs.

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Frequently asked questions

How do I identify an orange-legged furrow bee?

Look for a small (about 1 cm), brownish, faintly striped bee with thin pale bands at the rear edges of the abdominal segments and reddish-orange hind legs, often on bare sunny ground or daisy-family flowers. Small furrow bees can be tricky, so close views or a specimen may be needed for certainty.

What is a furrow bee or sweat bee?

Furrow bees are small to medium bees in the family Halictidae, named for a fine groove on the female's last abdominal segment. They are often called sweat bees because some are attracted to perspiration on warm days. Most nest in the ground.

Is the orange-legged furrow bee social or solitary?

Both. It is one of the few bees that can do either: eusocial, with a queen and workers, in warmer southern areas, and solitary, with each female nesting alone, in cooler northern ones. This social flexibility is why it is so widely studied.

Where does it nest?

In bare or sparsely vegetated ground, usually in light, well-drained soil on warm, south-facing banks and slopes, either as single nests or in loose aggregations.

When is it active?

Adults fly from April to October. Queens emerge in spring, workers appear through the summer in social nests, and males and new females are seen from mid to late summer into the autumn.

Do orange-legged furrow bees sting?

They can sting but are not aggressive and very rarely do so; the sting is mild. They are harmless to people going about a garden and are valuable pollinators.

What flowers does it visit?

A wide range, but especially the daisy family: ragworts, thistles, knapweeds, mayweeds and dandelions, along with other open, accessible flowers of meadows and verges.

Does the orange-legged furrow bee make honey?

No. Like nearly all wild bees it stores only small amounts of pollen and nectar to feed its own larvae, never a harvestable surplus. Only the honeybee makes honey in quantity. Compare the bee families in the World Bee Atlas.

Related species

Ground-nesting bee

Tawny Mining Bee

Andrena fulvaRead more → Ground-nesting bee

Ashy Mining Bee

Andrena cinerariaRead more → Solitary bee

Red Mason Bee

Osmia bicornisRead more →

Sources & references

Falk, S. Field Guide to the Bees of Great Britain and Ireland, Bloomsbury, with identification notes for Halictus rubicundus (size, hair bands, separation from Lasioglossum xanthopum and Halictus eurygnathus). Steven Falk Flickr collection.
BWARS (Bees, Wasps & Ants Recording Society). Species account: Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791), eusocial biology, nesting and flight period. bwars.com.
NatureSpot and BWARS field accounts for Halictus rubicundus: habitat, forage (Asteraceae) and colony cycle.
Field, J. et al. Studies on social plasticity in Halictus rubicundus, including transplant experiments showing climate-linked switching between social and solitary nesting (University of Sussex / published research on social plasticity).
GBIF Secretariat. Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791): Holarctic distribution and taxonomy. gbif.org.

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