Hylaeus (Metziella) sparsus (Cresson 1869)

Gibbs, Jason, Ascher, John S., Rightmyer, Molly G. & Isaacs, Rufus, 2017, The bees of Michigan (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila), with notes on distribution, taxonomy, pollination, and natural history, Zootaxa 4352 (1), pp. 1-160 : 72

Hylaeus (Metziella) sparsus (Cresson 1869)

County records: Dickinson, Ingham, Jackson, Midland, Washtenaw.

Notes. This is a rarely collected species with a relatively broad distribution across eastern North America ( Sellers & McCarthy 2015). Hylaeus sparsus has been collected from several plant species, but it has been suggested that it prefers flowers of the family Apiaceae ( Sellers & McCarthy 2015) and a recent record from Brooklyn in New York City (3 Jun 2012, Prospect Park Wellhouse) was taken on that host family (JSA, unpublished).

Material examined. Dickinson Co.: T43N R30W sec. 19, 20 Jun. 1985 on Ranunculus acris, V.A. Scott (1 ♂ UCMC) ; Ingham Co.: Okemos, Nancy Moore Park, 42.733 -84.421, 31 Apr. 2017 (1 ♂ TJWC) ; Jackson Co.: Waterloo SRA, 42.318–84.244, 29 Apr. 2017 (1 ♀ TJWC) ; Midland Co.: (no locality), 17 Jun. 1945, R.R. Dreisbach (1 ♀ MSUC) ; Washtenaw Co.: Ann Arbor , Boehnke House, N42.2615 W82.7696, 29 May 2014, C. Vadiya (1 ♀ UMMZ) .

A second female deposited at MSUC and collected in the 19th century has the following label information: “Ag. Coll. Mich., 6-26-88 /76”, but the actual collection locality of the specimen is unknown.