Reprinted with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1960 Bees of the Eastern United States. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin No. 141.
FEMALE—Length 8 mm.; entire body brilliant green, sometimes more or less coppery; mandibles conspicuously bidentate apically, more or less reddened, but becoming green at extreme base; clypeus shining, punctures rather coarse but shallow, well separated but hardly sparse, apical margin very narrowly blackened; supraclypeal area rather dull, very finely rugoso-punctate except along the narrow apical border; face above antennae densely and very finely rugoso-punctate; cheeks rather dull below, but smooth, finely tessellate, becoming finely rugoso-punctate above; pubescence of head and thorax very short and inconspicuous, entirely whitish except for a few scattered darker hairs on scutellum; scutum medially very closely and finely but distinctly punctate, becoming almost rugose laterally and anteriorly; scutellum rather dull, punctures very close, fine in general but very irregular and variable; pleura densely rugoso-punctate; dorsal area of propodeum subequal in breadth to metanotum, rather finely and regularly striate, dorsal and posterior faces rather dull, tessellate or minutely rugose; front and hind coxae green, tarsi and apical portion of the tibiae ferruginous, legs otherwise piceous to black; tegulae green along inner margin, becoming piceous posteriorly and more ferruginous on outer portion anteriorly; wings lightly infuscated, veins and stigma testaceous to piceous; abdominal terga shining, punctures minute but very close and quite uniform, becoming more minute on the more apical terga, disc of each very narrowly blackened along apical rim; basal sternum with a median, subapical, carinate ridge.
MALE—Length 8 mm.; entire body brilliant green, sometimes becoming more or less blue or coppery; mandibles dark; labrum brownish testaceous; clypeus shining, closely and rather deeply and coarsely punctate; supraclypeal area shining below, punctures deep and close, becoming crowded above; face above antennae very densely and finely rugose and dull, punctures becoming more distinct on vertex; cheeks shining and nearly impunctate below, becoming very finely and densely punctate above; antennae entirely dark, basal segment of flagellum slightly broader than long, somewhat reddened, 2nd segment about equal in length, 3rd and following segments considerably longer than broad; pubescence of head and thorax very short, somewhat yellowish above, becoming whitish laterally and below; scutum somewhat shining between deep and distinct but quite close punctures, these becoming almost crowded laterally and densely rugose anteriorly; scutellum shining between scattered and rather irregular punctures, these somewhat sparse on each side of middle; pleura deeply and rather coarsely and closely punctate, becoming more reticulate anteriorly; dorsal area of propodeum subequal in width to metanotum, quite coarsely and regularly striate, lateral faces finely and densely rugose, posterior face more coarsely rugose or reticulate; mid and hind coxae green, all femora more or less green, as also hind trochanters, front and mid trochanters black, tibiae and tarsi ferruginous; tegulae largely piceous, becoming narrowly green on inner side anteriorly, more yellowish-hyaline on outer side; wings sub hyaline, becoming slightly darker apically, veins and stigma brownish-testaceous; abdominal terga shining, punctures deep and distinct but very fine and quite close, even on basal terga, apical, impressed margins somewhat more minutely punctured than discs, the narrow apical rims blackish or purplish; basal sternum with a low median ridge; sterna 3-5 more or less metallic; apex of gonocoxites sub- truncate, with a median, obtuse angle; gonostyli extremely short, triangular, bearing a few short setae, and with a ventral, subapical, flattened and elongate lobe which is more or less recurved posteriorly, rounded apically; volsellae small and inconspicuous, but with a distinct outer cuspis and inner, broad digitus; penis valves quite short, not much exceeding gonostyli, not at all excavated, the tips slender.
DISTRIBUTION— Quebec and Maine to Minnesota, south to Texas and Florida, February to November (very early and late records in the South).
FLOWER RECORDS—Acer, Althaea, Amelanchier, Aruncus, Asclepias, Barbarea, Cercis, Coreopsis, Fagopyrum, Fragaria, Geranium, Gerardia, Haplopappus, Heliopsis, Helianthus, Houstonia, Hydrangea, Ilex, Malus, Melilotus, Padus, Polygonum, Prunus, Rhus, Rubus, Salix, Solidago, Vaccinium. Vernonia and Vitis. This species is recorded by Robertson (1929, as Oxystoglossa pura) on the following additional genera: Agastache, Arabis, Aster, Bidens, Blephilia, Cacalia Caulophyllum, Chaerophyhlum, Cicuta, Cornus, Cryptotaenia, Diospyros, Dirca, Evonymus, Fragaria, Lippia, Ludwigia, Malva, Osmorrhiza, Polemonium, Ranunculus, Rhamnus, Rudbeckia, Smilacina, Symphoricarpus, Taenidia, Teucrium, Thaspium, Tradescantia, Verbena, Verbesina and Zizia.
The holotype of Halictus asaphes Vachal in Paris was examined by Padre J. S. Moure and found to be identical with H. astios fuscatipes. He also examined the types of astios and its variety fuscatipes, and considers all three of these names proposed by Vachal synonyms of pura.
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Extracted from: Robertson, C. (1897). North American Bees - Description and Synonyms. Transactions of the Academy of Science od St. Louis. Vol. 7. No. 14.
Females - Green, reflecting bluish or purplish; abdomen shinil~g,
more evidently tinged with brassy or cupl'eous ; head densely
and finely punctured, clypeus coarsely and more sparsely
punctured, anterior margin black; eyes deeply and rather
acutely emarginate; process of labrum subquadrate; middle of mandibles more or less rufous, a greenish spot at base;
antennae black, flagellum paler beneath; mesonotum den8ely
and evenly punctured; metathorax with disc short, longitudinally
striate, truncation rounded above; wings subhyaline,
nervures, stigma and tegulae exteriorly testaceous; legs
brownir:;h, sometimes quite black, tibiae and tarsi sometimes
ferruginous yellow; hind spurs finely serrate; anterior, and
sometimes middle, femora reflecting more or less greenish
beneath; narrow margins of abdominal segments black,
sometimes wanting, abdomen beneath blackish. Length 7-9.
Males - Resembles the female, more bluish, more sparsely
punctured, labrum and mandibles honey yellow, flagellum
beneath and tegulae testaceous, tibiae and tarsi usually yellow,
hind tibiae sometimes darker in the middle and reflecting a
little metallic, femora bluish or greenish, sometimes with tbe
trochanters quite pale and showing only a little bluish beneath;
ventral segments entire, middle ones greenish. Length 6-8
mm.
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