Lasioglossum (Dialictus) minutum (Fabricius 1798)

Gibbs, Jason, Bass, Amber & Morgan, Katherine, 2022, Habralictus and Lasioglossum of Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Lesser Antilles (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Halictidae), ZooKeys 1089, pp. 125-167 : 125

Lasioglossum (Dialictus) minutum (Fabricius 1798)

Fig. 23

Hylaeus minutus Fabricius 1798: 272. Americae insulus . Syntype ♂ (Natural History Museum of Denmark).

Prosopis minuta : Dalla Torre (1896: 27) catalogue; Fabricius (1804: 295) redescription.

Dialictus (Chloralictus) minutus : Moure (1960a: 101) redescription, taxonomic status, distribution; Moure (1960b: 76) redescription, taxonomic status.

Lasioglossum (Evylaeus) minutum : Ebmer (1974: 117, 122) taxonomic status, nomenclature, distribution.

Dialictus minutus : Moure and Hurd (1987: 114, 128, 129) taxonomic status, nomenclature, distribution; Moure (2007: 851) catalogue.

Taxonomic notes.

The distribution and identity of L. minutum remains in doubt. Fabricius (1798) did not specify the number of specimens examined, but a single male type is known. Moure (1960a) examined this type of Hylaeus minutus Fabricius and transferred it to Dialictus (Chloralictus) . The type locality is " Americae insulus ", clarified subsequently to be " Americae meridionalis insulus " (Fabricius 1804). Moure (1960b) thought it was from St. Vincent. Moure and Hurd (1987) considered it a possible senior synonym of L. sanctivincenti . However, Ebmer (1974) suggests that the specimen may be from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, as the underside of the label read "S. Thomae". The latter locality information may not be a reliable indication of the specimen’s original collection, but rather the shipping origin to Denmark (L. Vilhelmsen, pers. comm.). Photographs of the specimen were examined (Fig. 23 ), and it seems consistent with L. sanctivincenti . Without certainty of its island of origin or physical examination of the holotype of L. minutum a formal synonymy seems premature.

The nomenclature of L. minutum is somewhat confusing as discussed by earlier authors ( Ebmer 1974). Moure and Hurd (1987) considered it preoccupied by Schrank (i.e., Apis minuta Schrank 1781). However, Ebmer (1974) considered Schrank’s bee to be a Hylaeus , although Warncke (1975) disagreed. Unless Schrank’s bee can be assigned to Lasioglossum , it cannot be considered a senior secondary homonym. Two definite cases of secondary homonymy exist, one of which has not been previously resolved. Kirby (1802: 61-62) described Melitta minuta , which he attributes to Schrank. However, Kirby is typically credited with authorship ( Blüthgen 1921; Ebmer 1974) since he acknowledged key differences between his bee and Schrank’s and doubted that they were the same. Kirby’s bee is a secondary junior homonym of Fabricius’s name. Lasioglossum parvulum (Schenck) is now the valid name for Kirby’s bee. More recently, Pauly (1986) described Homalictus minutus , which is now transferred to Lasioglossum ( Danforth and Ji 2001; Gibbs et al. 2012; Ascher and Pickering 2021), making it a secondary junior homonym of L. minutum (Fabricius). A new name is required for Pauly’s species, so we propose the replacement name Lasioglossum (Homalictus) minuens . Some authors still maintain usage of Homalictus at the generic level ( Campbell et al. 2007; Michener 2007; Groom et al. 2013; Niu et al. 2013; Dorey et al. 2019), which would make L. minuens a junior synonym of Pauly’s name in that classification based on article 59.4 of the Code.

Figures

Figure 23. Lasioglossum (Dialictus) minutum (Fabricius), syntype male of Hylaeus minutus Fabricius A dorsal habitus B head, oblique frontal-ventral view C lateral habitus. Images courtesy of the Natural History Museum of Denmark. Photographs by Mikkel Hoegh Post. http: // www. daim. snm. ku. dk / search-in-types