Homalictus Cockerell, 1919

Dorey, James B., Schwarz, Michael P. & Stevens, Mark I., 2019, Review of the bee genus Homalictus Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) from Fiji with description of nine new species, Zootaxa 4674 (1), pp. 1-46 : 6-7

Genus Homalictus Cockerell, 1919

Characters common to all Fijian Homalictus

The diagnosis for Homalictus remains unchanged, see Cockerell (1919). Here we summarise characters common to all Fijian Homalictus (male and female). The Fijian Homalictus have open to sparse ( Fig. 2 ), moderate to long hairs covering their heads and thoraces; some hairs on the dorsal side of the metasoma becoming denser posteriorly and long to very long hairs on the ventral surface of the metasoma, with the longest and densest hairs on females. All females possess a black fovea along the proximal anterior margin of the eyes; this feature was also found in some males and might indicate feminization in some species. Mandibles of both males and females can be simple or bidentate and vary within species, perhaps the result of wear. The propodeum has a weak carina along the posterior dorsal margin, this can be depressed medially, or not, and can vary in breadth. The number of spines on the inner hind tibial spur varies greatly with 4–18 spines found on H. fijiensis alone and a range of one or two for other species. The claws of all specimens examined were cleft. The redescriptions below for H. fijiensis , H. hadrander , H. achrostus , and H. versifrons are provided to standardise the descriptions of Fijian Homalictus .

Figures

FIGURE 2. Grades of (a) pit density and (b) pit size. Reproduced from Houston (1975) with permission from CSIRO Publishing.