Paracolletinae

Almeida, Eduardo A. B., 2008, Revised species checklist of the Paracolletinae (Hymenoptera, Colletidae) of the Australian Region, with the description of new taxa, Zootaxa 1891, pp. 1-24 : 4-5

Paracolletinae Cockerell

Paracolletinae Cockerell 1934: 8 , nomen protectum (ICZN 1993). Type genus: Paracolletes Smith 1853 . Neopasiphaeinae Cockerell 1930a: 148. Type genus: Neopasiphae Perkins 1912 .

Phenacolletinae Cockerell 1934: 7, nomen nudum. Type genus: Phenacolletes Cockerell 1905 b.

Eulonchopriinae Moure 1945: 140. Type genus: Eulonchopria Brèthes 1909 . Lonchopriinae Moure 1945: 141. Type genus: Lonchopria Vachal 1905 .

Comments. The name Paracolletinae has a problematic history, as described by Engel (2005: 8; see also Michener 1991: 227–229; ICZN 1993). A controversial taxonomic change to be made to the higher-level taxonomy of Colletidae will very likely be the replacement of the name Paracolletinae . The molecular phylogeny of Colletidae ( Almeida 2007; Almeida & Danforth, in press) provides strong evidence that Paracolletes is more closely related to Diphaglossinae than to the remaining genera of Paracolletinae . The latter will need a name other than “ Paracolletinae ” in case Paracolletes proves not to belong with those taxa.

Despite the evidence of paraphyly of Paracolletinae in relation to the other colletid subfamilies, I have two reasons for not proposing a name change for Paracolletinae at this moment. (1) No unambiguous morphological synapomorphies for the clade formed by all “ Paracolletinae ” except Paracolletes are yet known. Moreover, the sister-group relationship of Paracolletes and Diphaglossinae should also be confirmable by shared morphological characters. (2) The precise limits of the subfamily to be proposed need to be investigated. This can be done via a careful study of Paracolletinae that includes an even broader taxonomic sampling than that of Almeida and Danforth (in press). In brief, it seems premature to propose such a radical taxonomic change as the replacement of the name Paracolletinae . A morphological study of Paracolletinae is underway (Almeida, in prep.), which is expected to further illuminate changes to be made. Currently, Paracolletinae is morphologically recognizable by means of widely available taxonomic keys (e.g., Michener 2007) and I refrain from proposing taxonomic changes prematurely to avoid instability in classification of Colletidae .