Bees of the family Halictidae Thomson, 1869 from Dominica, Lesser Antilles (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)

Abstract

The bees of the family Halictidae Thomson, 1869 from Dominica are reviewed. Seven new species are described and illustrated: Lasioglossum (Dialictus) kalinago sp. nov., L. (D.) dominicense sp. nov., L. (D.) kilpatrickae sp. nov., L. (Habralictellus) roseauense sp. nov., Sphecodes diablotinus sp. nov., S. albifacies sp. nov. and Habralictus antillarus sp. nov. A description and images of the previously unknown female of Microsphecodes dominicanus (Stage, 1972) are provided. In total, eleven species are recognized; eight nest-building species and three kleptoparasites. All halictid species from Dominica are currently known only from the island. A key to halictid bees from Dominica is provided.

Bees of the genus Lasioglossum (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) from Greater Puerto Rico, West Indies

“…This paper is the first attempt to revise all the Lasioglossum on an island in the Greater Antilles since revised the Cuban species as the genus Chloralictus. A limited number of taxonomic studies on West Indian Lasioglossum have been published recently that are beginning to document the diversity of the fauna (Engel 2001b(Engel , 2011Genaro 2001Genaro , 2016Gibbs 2016). In a catalogue, Alayo (1976) documented ten undescribed species of Cuban Lasioglossum.…”

“…From examination of material throughout the West Indies, it is clear that there are additional species in need of description from other islands (e.g., Gibbs 2016). As the number of species increases and the ranges of named taxa become better defined, it will become possible to understand the historical patterns of vicariance and dispersal that led to the current distribution of halictid bees in the West Indies.…”

“…Additional surveys will be needed to capture uncommon species for molecular studies and to test species boundaries further. For example, Lasioglossum punctifrons, a species endemic to Dominica, has apparently not been captured since 1913 (Gibbs 2016), although it should be noted that sampling effort on the island has been limited. Efforts to recollect this species are warranted to determine its conservation status.…”

“…Two members of L. (Habralictellus) occurring in the Lesser Antilles, Lasioglossum auratum (Ashmead, 1900) and L. punctifrons (Crawford, 1914), show close affinity to L. eickwortellum, particularly in the shape of the head and the presence of three submarginal cells (Gibbs 2016). Both of these species lack the dense and distinct mesoscutal punctures and seem to have entirely dark metasoma.…”

The cuckoo bee genus Sphecodes Latreille, 1804 (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) in Kazakhstan

“…Species are at times challenging to identify, with many similar, even cryptically similar, taxa in most major faunas. While certain faunas have received excellent revisionary treatments and isolated species are described from time to time (e.g., Pesenko, 1979;Tsuneki, 1983Tsuneki, , 1984Warncke, 1992;Nobile & Campadelli, 1998;Campadelli & Nobile, 2000;Nobile & Turrisi, 2004;Engel, 2006b;Bogusch & Straka, 2012;Özbek et al, 2015;Gibbs, 2016), the vast majority of the diversity within Sphecodes remains to be adequately characterized at the specific level using modern concepts of circumscription, a challenge common to many large bee genera (Engel, 2011;Gonzalez et al, 2013). 2…”