Agapostemonoides Roberts & Brooks

Gonçalves, Rodrigo B. & Melo, Gabriel A. R., 2006, Notes on the Neotropical bee genera Agapostemonoides Roberts & Brooks and Rhinetula Friese, with description of a new species of Agapostemonoides (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Halictinae), Zootaxa 1136, pp. 39-48 : 40

Agapostemonoides Roberts & Brooks

Agapostemonoides Roberts & Brooks, 1987: 364 . Type species: Agapostemonoides hurdi Roberts & Brooks 1987 .

Comments and diagnosis

Diagnostic features of Agapostemonoides are the combination of hairy eyes, epistomal lobe not projecting into the clypeus, and basal yellow marks on the terga of both sexes. This genus resembles Agapostemon especially for the carina on the declivitous surface of the propodeum, complete in Agapostemon and incomplete in Agapostemonoides .

Roberts & Brooks (1987), when proposing the genus, pointed out that it is “probably closest to Agapostemon ”. Michener (2000) considered Agapostemonoides as a subgenus of Agapostemon speculating a sister group relationship between it and Agapostemon s. str., since for him the epistomal lobe of Agapostemon is likely to be derived relative to the condition in Agapostemonoides . Janjic & Packer (2003), however, did not find phylogenetic evidence for a closer relationship between the two groups and maintained Agapostemonoides as a separate genus.