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 9 mm.; entire body brilliant green; mandibles black to piceous, base narrowly greenish; clypeus bright green, apex narrowly black, punctures coarse and deep, well separated medially, close apically and finer laterally; supraclypeal area shining, lower portion almost impunctate, upper portion above an obscure transverse ridge more rugose and dull; face above antennae rather coarsely rugoso-punctate; cheeks smooth and shining below, with sparse and very minute punctures, becoming microscopically tessellate above; lateral angles of pronotum only slightly produced; scutum somewhat shining, median punctures posteriorly slightly separated, becoming densely rugose laterally and anteriorly; scutellum somewhat shining, irregularly punctured, rather sparsely so each side of center; pleura rugose, becoming somewhat smoother along narrow posterior border; dorsal area of propodeum subequal in breadth to metanotum, finely roughened, lateral faces shining, with scattered, rather deep but variable punctures, posterior face polished, with sparse minute punctures; tarsi brownish-piceous in large part, but mid and hind basitarsi greenish toward base, legs otherwise green; inner half of tegulae green, becoming brownish on outer portion posteriorly, narrowly hyaline along thu outer anterior margin; wings hyaline, veins and stigma testaceous; abdominal terga shining, terga 1 and 2 with conspicuous, apical fimbriae, punctures fine but deep and distinct, well separated on basal tergum, rather close on tergum 2, becoming very close on 3 and 4, punctures somewhat finer and more sparse on the depressed margin of each tergum; pubescence short but quite uniform, entirely pale, that on head and thorax pale laterally and below, more or less fuscous on vertex and dorsum of thorax.
MALE—Length 9 mm.; entire body brilliant green; mandibles and labrum black to piceous; clypeus entirely green, punctures rather coarse and close but quite shallow; supraclypeal area shining and largely impunctate over lower half, upper half obscurely and shallowly punctate; face above antennae rather densely rugose and dull; cheeks shining and polished, nearly impunctate below, becoming very minutely and closely punctate or tessellate above; scape and pedicel black, flagellum brownish ferruginous beneath, black above, segment 2 only very slightly exceeding 1st, following segments relatively short; lateral angles of pronotum only slightly produced; scutum somewhat shining, punctures distinct but close medially and posteriorly, becoming densely rugose laterally and anteriorly; scutellum somewhat shining but quite closely punctate, very slightly grooved medially; pleura rather deeply and distinctly punctate below, becoming rugoso-punctate above and anteriorly; dorsal area of propodeum about as broad as metanotum, finely roughened but somewhat shining, lateral faces shining, closely and rather irregularly and finely punctate, posterior face somewhat shining but rather coarsely and closely punctate; tegulae green along inner margin, becoming brownish on outer margin posteriorly, more hyaline anteriorly; wings hyaline, veins and stigma testaceous; tarsi yellowish, legs otherwise green; abdominal terga smooth and shining, terga 1 and 2 bearing apical fimbriae, punctures deep and distinct, rather coarse and well separated on basal tergum, becoming closer and finer on each successive more apical tergum, depressed apical margins more sparsely and minutely punctate; pubescence largely pale, short and suberect; sterna 1-3 green, the remaining plates dark, 4 broadly incurved, with a slender, median, acute projection, 6 nearly straight apically; ventral inner lobe at base of gonostyli broadly rounded and rather short, the subapical dorsal lobe extremely broad and expansive, covering tips of penis valves, apex of gonostyli slightly excavated, bearing numerous rather short setae; volsellae obscure; penis valves deeply excavated dorsally toward base.
DISTRIBUTION—In one or more of its forms, cuprea ranges from Ontario and the New England states to Florida, west to South Dakota, Arizona and through Mexico to Panama, March to November in the United States.
FLOWER RECORDS—Apocynum, Aralia, Aronia, Aster, Bidens, Brassica, Ceanothus, Chrysanthemum, Cornus, Eryngium, Eupatorium, Fragaria, Gerardia, Haplopappus, Hydrangea, Hypericum, hex, Melilotus, Prunus, Rhus, Rubus and Salix. Robertson (1929) records this species (as Augochlora fervida and A. viridula) in the following additional genera: Arabis, Asclepias, Blephilia, Cacalia, Cassia, Caulophyllum, Celastrus, Cercis, Cicuta, Circaea, Claytonia, Coreopsis, Cornus, Crataegus, Diospyros, Dodecatheon, Erigenia, Geranium, Gnaphalium, Gonolobus, Hydrophyllum, Lepachys Lippia, Lycopus, Malva, Nepeta Osmorrhiza, Parthenium, Petalostemum, Polygonum, Polytaenia, Prunus, Pycnanthemum, Rhammus, Ribes, Rosa, Sagittaria, Sanicula, Scrophularia, Smilacina, Solidago, Specularia, Symphoricarpus, Taenidia, Thaspium, Tilia, Trifolium, Verbascum, Verbena, Veronica, Zanthoxyllum and Zizia.
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