Taxonomy of the New World bee genus Agapostemon Guérin-Méneville – new names and synonymies (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)

Abstract

Many early taxonomic works on North American bees were published by Europeans using specimens collected in the New World, some with type locations so imprecise that uncertainty on the nomenclatural status remains to this day. Two examples come from Fabricius (1745–1808) who described Andrena virescens Fabricius, 1775 and Apis viridula Fabricius, 1793 from “America” and “Boreal America”, respectively. The former species of Agapostemon Guérin-Méneville, 1844 occurs across most of the United States and southern Canada, the latter presumed an endemic to Cuba. The type materials of these two taxa have never been compared to each other, though a morphology-based phylogenetic analysis placed both in distinct species groups. Here we synonymize Apis viridula under Ag. virescens, thereby making Ag. femoralis (Guérin-Méneville, 1844) available as the name for the Cuban species. A lectotype for Ag. femoralis (the type species for the genus Agapostemon) is hereby designated to stabilize this taxonomy. We also synonymize Ag. obscuratus Cresson, 1869 under Ag. femoralis, suggesting that it represents a dark colour polymorphism. As Ag. cubensis Roberts, 1972 is a junior secondary homonym of Ag. cubensis (Spinola, 1851), we offer Ag. robertsi as a replacement name for the former.

A review of the Augochloropsis (Hymenoptera, Halictidae) and keys to the shiny green Halictinae of the midwestern United States

“…However, similar to the situation in Augochloropsis, more taxonomic work is still needed in the other shiny green Halictinae. For example the Agapostemon of the United States were last revised 50 years ago (Roberts 1972;Janjic and Packer 2003;Sheffield et al 2021), the Augochlora of the United States have never been revised, and the molecular and morphological diversity found in Augochlorella aurata suggests it is potentially a cryptic species complex (Ordway 1966;Sheffield et al 2009). Given the identification issues surrounding what were the former Augochloropsis metallica subspecies, it is especially important that researchers cite the taxonomic concepts and identification resources they use and save voucher specimens (see Packer et al 2018).…”

Agapostemon fasciatus Crawford (Hymenoptera, Halictidae), a valid North American bee species ranging into southern Canada

“…Bees of the genus Agapostemon Guérin-Méneville, 1844 ( Hymenoptera : Halictidae ) are commonly encountered throughout southern Canada and all of the United States and Mexico, the Antilles and into South America ( Roberts 1972 , Roberts and Brooks 1987 , Janjic and Packer 2003 ). Roberts (1972) recognised 43 species from the Americas (though see Sheffield et al (2021) ), seven of these known from Canada ( Sheffield et al 2017 ).…”