Rhinetula Friese

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 : 43-45

Rhinetula Friese

Rhinetula Friese, 1912: 185 . Type species: Rhinetula denticrus Friese, 1922 , designated by Sandhouse (1943: 596).

0.5mm.

Comments and diagnosis

Rhinetula is easily distinguished from other genera of the Agapostemon group for its large body size, antennae of the male similar in length to those of the female, reduced metapostnotum, and a well­developed lateral gradular carina on the metasomal terga. The species are dark to reddish brown with green and bluish metallic luster. The shiny and smooth lateral portions of T1 (below subspiracular carina), the short metapostnotum and the short male antennae are unique in the Agapostemon group ( Roberts & Brooks 1987, Michener 2000). The weak sex dimorphism in metasomal size in Rhinetula is otherwise exhibited only by Paragapostemon in the Agapostemon group ( Michener 2000).

Friese (1922) included six species in Rhinetula when proposing it. The type material of Friese´s species was examined by Roberts & Brooks (1987), who found that only R. denticrus and R. rufiventris really belong in the genus. The latter species was synonymized under R. denticrus by Roberts & Brooks.