Twenty six new species of Leioproctus (Colletellus): Australian Neopasiphaeinae, all but one with two submarginal cells (Hymenoptera, Colletidae, Leioproctus)

Abstract

Twenty six new species of Australian Leioproctus (subgenusColletellus) (Hymenoptera, Colletidae) are described: aberrans Leijs, sp. n., alatus Leijs, sp. n., albipilosus Leijs, sp. n., albiscopis Leijs, sp. n., aliceafontanus Leijs, sp. n., altispinosus Leijs, sp. n., aratus Leijs, sp. n., auricorneus Leijs, sp. n., bidentatus Leijs, sp. n., centralis Leijs, sp. n., ciliatus Leijs, sp. n., claviger Leijs, sp. n., consobrinus Leijs, sp. n., constrictus Leijs, sp. n., laciniosus Leijs, sp. n., longivultu Leijs, sp. n., lucidus Leijs, sp. n., nitidifuscus Leijs, sp. n., pectinatus Leijs, sp. n., pilotapilus Leijs, sp. n., quadripinnatus Leijs, sp. n., rubicundus Leijs, sp. n., rubricinctus Leijs, sp. n., similis Leijs, sp. n., splendens Leijs, sp. n., submetallicus Leijs, sp. n. High resolution images of diagnostic characters for all type specimens are included. Identification keys are provided.

Global Patterns and Drivers of Bee Distribution

“…30 All analyses suggest that while regions such as parts of North America and northern Europe are well known, Africa and Asia are not (Figure 2; Figure S4C), and knowledge of the Australian fauna is largely limited to coastal areas ( Figure 3) despite apparent high richness in less-accessible regions. 31 Ultimately, processing, curation, and digitization of museum specimens from lessknown areas should be viewed as more important than the inventories and expeditions from which they come, as data are only useful when reliable, accurate, and accessible.…”

Moving On from the Insect Apocalypse Narrative: Engaging with Evidence-Based Insect Conservation

“…The insect apocalypse narrative is built from exaggerated interpretations of a limited number of studies, and ignores other recent empirical literature on insect populations showing longterm increases for some taxa (Herrera 2018;Gibb et al 2019), no discernible trends in other taxa (Bell et al 2015), and new species or records in understudied locations (Leijs et al 2018;Meiners et al 2019). Very few popular and social media reports on the 'insect apocalypse' made an attempt to reconcile the complexities inherent in insect population dynamics for non-specialist audiences.…”

New bee species from northern Queensland, Australia (Hymenoptera: Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae)

“…The terminology for integumental sculpture, grades of pit and pubescence density and pit size follows Houston (1975), reproduced in Leijs et al . (2018). Integument sculpture was observed using 40× magnification and YK‐B144T LED ring elimination.…”

“…Importantly, the Bush Blitz programme does not only allow taxonomists to discover new species during surveys at remote and under‐sampled locations, the programme also provides grants to describe new species or revise taxa that were collected on these surveys. As a result of this programme, 1657 fauna species (https://bushblitz.org.au/reports/), including 40 bees that species have been described (Hogendoorn et al 2015; Leijs and Hogendoorn 2016; Leijs et al 2018, 2020) since the programme started.…”