The following material taken with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962. Bees of the Eastern United States, Volume II. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. Tech. Bul. No.152, 557 p.
Our species of Ceratina are black, bluish-green or blue, often with yellowish or ivory maculations on the clypeus, pronotal tubercles and legs. In the front wing the stigma is well developed. Although the clypeus is quite flat, the labrum is quite fully exposed by the closed mandibles. These have a broad base, but the upper margin is deeply concave, with the apex slender. The labrum fits into the resulting space. The thorax is gradually declivous posteriorly, the menanotum and dorsal area of the propodeum forming a part of the dorsal surface. The abdomen in the female is obtusely angulate at the apex, while in the male the sixth tergum may bear a low median tuft of hairs that superficially resembles the angle in the females. Tergum 7 in the males is well developed, occupying a more ventral position, and is either conspicuously carinate or tuberculate.
These bees commonly nest in the pithy stems of plans. Several papers on their biology have been published by Ashmead, Packard, Rau, Graenicher, Hicks and Krombein.
|