Viereck's Sweat Bee

L. vierecki can be distinguished by its extremely hairy, orange-yellow abdomen with clear golden yellow hair on its scutellum, and pits touching the scutellum. There are several other differences from bees that have similar colored abdomen. Its antennae is darker on the bottom half, and the rugae reaches the top of the metathorax, which has narrowly spaced punctures. Though the abdomen has punctures as well, it does not have a bronze-colored reflection and is not smooth and shiny. The mesonotum, which is the same color as the abdomen, is not smooth and polished in the middle and has small punctures. The first abdominal segment differs from other segments due to its bluer color and punctures. The legs are lighter but not polished.

Females. Female L. vierecki are distinguished by extensively yellow legs with a brown tint on the top half of the clypeus, a pale yellow-brown metasoma, and a very dense, slightly yellow tomentum on the mesosoma, metasomal terga, and head.

Males. Male L. vierecki are recognized by their smaller size and many punctures on the scutum of their middle thoracic segment.

L. vierecki is found in eastern North America from Minnesota to the New England states and south to Louisiana and Georgia as well as in Canada in Manitoba and Ontario. They are known as sand specialist bees, which means that they only nest in sand or only visit plants restricted to sand.

Flowers visited. L. vierecki pollinates several flowers throughout the eastern part of North America. In New Jersey they have been found on Ceanothus, Hydrangea, Rubus, Specularia, Helianthus, Monarda, and Solidago. In Illinois, they have been found on:

L. vierecki is considered a solitary bee. These types of bees exhibit solitary behavior, where a female raises the entire brood by herself and lives alone in her own nest. This behavior could have evolved from eusociality. L. vierecki is active between April and September.