Socially-polymorphic
Guides
Halictus rubicundus
Orange-legged Furrow Bee
Halictus rubicundus, the orange-legged furrow bee, is a ground-nesting sweat bee with one of the widest natural distributions of any bee species, occurring throughout temperate regions of the Holarctic. The species is notable for its socially polymorphic behavior: populations are eusocial in warmer, lower-elevation regions with longer growing seasons, producing multiple broods with worker offspring, while populations at higher latitudes or elevations are solitary, producing only a single brood. This environmental plasticity in social organization has made the species a key model for studying the evolution of social behavior. Females excavate burrows in soil, typically on south-facing slopes to maximize thermal conditions for larval development.