Halictus smeathmanellus (Kirby)

Weissmann, Julie A., Picanco, Ana, Borges, Paulo A. V. & Schaefer, Hanno, 2017, Bees of the Azores: an annotated checklist (Apidae, Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 642, pp. 63-95 : 79

Halictus smeathmanellus (Kirby)

Halictus smeathmanellus (Kirby), ( Lasioglossum smeathmanellum )

Description.

Small black bee (wing length 4.5 mm in females and 4-4.5 mm in males), in the sun shining metallic green, scutum sparsely punctuated (Fig. 8 e–f).

Distinguishing features.

With Halictus morio , one of the two small and greenish representatives of the genus in the Azores, but larger in size than the former species.

General distribution.

North Africa (Morocco); in Europe from the Iberian Peninsula to Scotland and SW Germany.

Distribution in the Azores.

Corvo, Flores, Pico, São Miguel, Terceira.

First record.

First mentioned in Blüthgen (1944), no island specified.

Nesting.

Mostly in vertical structures (sparsely vegetated slopes, crevices in cliffs or walls), often in large aggregations.

Social behaviour.

Probably solitary (http://www.bwars.com/bee/halictidae/lasioglossum-smeathmanellum) but no observations from the Azores available.

Foraging.

Polylectic, observed on Asteraceae ( Solidago azorica ).

Phenology.

July-August.

Material.

Pico (Madalena), July 1986, 6 females, 1 male, det. Ebmer, coll. Museum Leiden (Ebmer, pers. comm.). Terceira (airport), 1 female, leg. H. Schaefer, B36 (TUM).

The COI sequence of specimen H. Schaefer B36 (TUM), acc. no. KX824762, is identical to a Halictus smeathmanellus sequence from England in GenBank (KT074061, see Fig. 2).