Thygater Holmberg 1883

Freitas, Felipe V. & Silveira, Fernando A., 2017, Synopsis of the bee genus Thygater Holmberg 1884 (Hymenoptera, Apidae) in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, with the description of a new species and a key to all Brazilian species, Zootaxa 4238 (1), pp. 1-29 : 3

Genus Thygater Holmberg 1883

Type species: Tetralonia terminata Smith 1854 (= Macrocera analis Lepeletier 1841 )

Diagnosis (unique synapomorphies for each group are in italics). Thygater belongs to a distinctive group, maybe a clade, of Neotropical eucerini genera, which can be recognized by the following set of characters ( Michener 2007): Female—blade of galea at least 1.4 times as long as eye; mandible with condylar ridge expanded, at least as salient as external carina; labrum usually ¾ as long as wide; gradulus of S2 weakly biconvex; gradulus of T6 without teeth on apicolateral margin. Male—labrum at least ¾ as long as wide; clypeus strongly protuberant; clypeocular distance as long as minimum diameter of F1 or longer; inferior part of paraocular carina absent (indicated by a weak ridge in some species of Thygater ); lateral portion of clypeus, paraocular area just above clypeus, paraocular area adjacent to clypeus and paraocular area adjacent to eye all in the same plane.

Thygater can be differentiated from the other genera in this group by the following features: Female—clypeus entirely black, without a pair of divergent ridges; scape shorter than interantennal space, about twice as long as wide; F1 at least as long as scape; vertex without preoccipital carina. Male—antenna very long, but apical flagellomeres similar in diameter to basal ones, without row of long hairs; pygidial plate vestigial, merely indicated by lateral carinae; T7 with apical emargination delimiting two flat (round or triangular) lobes.