euglossa

Updated: May 24, 2025

The Midas dives, and other species of large Brazilian flies, have dark wings and metallic blue elongate bodies, resembling the large stinging Sphegidæ of the same country; and a very large fly of the genus Asilus has black-banded wings and the abdomen tipped with rich orange, so as exactly to resemble the fine bee Euglossa dimidiata, and both are found in the same parts of South America.

- Little Masterpieces of Science:: The Naturalist as Interpreter and Seer

The female of the handsome golden and black Euglossa Surinamensis has this palette of very large size. This species builds its solitary nest also in crevices of walls or trees but it closes up the chink with fragments of dried leaves and sticks cemented together, instead of clay. It visits the caju trees, and gathers with its hind legs a small quantity of the gum which exudes from their trunks.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons

In the open country or campos of Santarem on the Lower Amazons, flowering trees and bushes are more abundant, and there a large number of floral insects are attracted. The forest bees of South America belonging to the genera Melipona and Euglossa are more frequently seen feeding on the sweet sap which exudes from the trees or on the excrement of birds on leaves, rather than on flowers.

Henry Walter Bates - The Naturalist on the River Amazons