Leioproctus Smith, 1853

Prendergast, Kit S., 2022, Leioproctus zephyr Prendergast (Hymenoptera, Colletidae, Leioproctus), an oligoletic new bee species with a distinctive clypeus, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 93, pp. 167-188 : 167

Genus Leioproctus Smith, 1853

Type species.

Leioproctus imitatus Smith, 1853.

Leioproctus zephyr sp. nov. can be assigned to the genus Leioproctus based on the following diagnostic features: facial fovea broad, moderately impressed; mandibles with only one subapical tooth, with the rutellum the largest and longest; labrum more than three times as wide as it is long; stigma well-developed, tapering apically to marginal vein, well within the marginal cell; propodeum with sloping, subhorizontal basal zone; inner hind tibial spur of the female pectinate, not crowded; basitibial plate of the female well-defined.

This species cannot be clearly assigned to the currently recognised subgenera of Leioproctus . Although this species shares various features of the two species currently assigned to the subgenus Leioproctus Ceratocolletes Michener, 1965, L. zephyr diverges in details of the hind-tibial spurs, propodeum, and male genitalia, and whilst it shares similarity in the clypeus morphology of L. (Ceratocolletes) antennatus Smith, 1879, it lacks the modified antennae of the male. The species also shares some diagnostic characters of Protomorpha Rayment, 1959, Charicolletes Maynard, 2013, and Odontocolletes Maynard, 1997, such as the malar space absent; strong punctures on the dorsal surface of the mesosoma with smooth interspaces; terga with pale apical hair bands; flagellum short, middle segments mostly broader than long or scarcely longer than broad; clypeus and supraclypeal area not flat, usually punctate, suture separating the m distinct; S7 of the male has two apical lobes. However, it lacks other diagnostic features, and has features unique to it and absent in these subgenera. On this basis, L. zephyr cannot be confidently assigned to any of the current subgenera of Leioproctus . This species may represent a new subgenus of Leioproctus , however but a revision of these subgenera and species currently assigned to them is required.