Europe and adjoining western Asia
Fine-art photographic collection
Halictus maculatus
A small social bee whose underground colonies reveal workers that mate, reproduce and challenge the simple queen–worker divide.
About this species
Spotted Furrow Bee
Halictus maculatusSmith, 1848
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Halictus maculatus is a ground-nesting eusocial sweat bee. An overwintered female founds the nest, raises workers and later produces males and new reproductive females, but the worker caste is more reproductively flexible than in honeybees.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Halictidae · Halictus
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe and adjoining western AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Warm open habitats with bare or lightly vegetated soil and abundant flowers.
Diurnal from spring through late summer.
Nectar and pollen from a broad range of flowers.
Small annual eusocial colonies in branching soil nests.
What makes this species remarkable?
Excavated colonies averaged only about three or four workers — a complete insect society operating with fewer members than many human households.
In one studied population, more than three quarters of workers had mated and many showed ovarian development rather than being permanently sterile.
Dense nesting aggregations can attract so many parasites that parasitism rises with nest density and contributes to a rapid population collapse.