Thomas M. Onuferko

Canadian Museum of Nature / Musée canadien de la nature · Zoology

We record 392 species or morphospecies of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) for Manitoba, Canada, which is 154 more species than reported in 2015 and includes five new generic records since 2015 ( Ashmeadiella , Brachymelecta , Eucera, Neolarra, and Triepeolus ). Thirteen new records reported here are new for Canada: Calliopsis ( Nomadopsis ) australior...

Established populations of the non-native horned-face bee, Osmia cornifrons (Radoszkowski, 1887), and the taurus mason bee, Osmia taurus Smith, 1873 (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae), have been identified from Canada for the first time. In the US, the importation of O. cornifrons , beginning in the 1970s, led to its release for agricultural crop pollinat...

A new species of Epeolus Latreille, 1802 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)—E. emiliae Onuferko and Sheffield, new species—is described from North America west of the Great Plains. It is morphologically most similar to Epeolus autumnalis Robertson, 1902, a species known exclusively from east of the Rocky Mountains. DNA barcode sequences from representatives of...

The first known gynander of the East Asian cellophane bee Colletes hedini Kuhlmann (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) is described and imaged. We provide an illustrated differential diagnosis based on the terminalia, which are entirely male. We also DNA barcoded the gynander to confirm its identity, and the complete bar-code sequence is made public. In the...

A database of records of Melectini Westwood, 1840. Records of Brachymelecta Linsley, 1939 include specimens personally examined by at least one of the authors as well as online and literature records. Included are geographic coordinates associated with collection/observation localities, which were used to construct range maps and in spatial analysi...

Supp. file 2. An annotated list of morphological characters scored for six ingroup taxa (species of Brachymelecta Linsley, 1939) and four outgroup taxa (species of other melectine genera) from which the matrix presented in Table 1 was constructed.

Supp. file 3. Supplementary figures.

Abstract. The bee genus Brachymelecta Linsley, 1939 has until now been represented by a single specimen, which has puzzled melittologists since its original description as Melecta? mucida Cresson, 1879. Through detailed morphological comparison and images, we show that the holotype is no more than an unusual specimen of a widespread species, most r...

A host-cleptoparasite association is newly confirmed between the solitary bee Colletes consors mesocopus Swenk (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) and its cuckoo bee Epeolus americanus (Cresson) (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Females of E. americanus were observed entering the nests of C. consors mesocopus in June 2020 at a clay pit in Meadow Creek, British Columbia...

Cases of partially albinic specimens of cleptoparasitic bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Nomadinae) in which the pubescence lacks the usual pigmentation are presented and discussed. Anomalously pale-haired individuals within the following three genera are known: Brachymelecta Linsley, Epeolus Latreille, and Triepeolus Robertson. Since two of the aberrant...

Colletes Latreille (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) is a diverse genus with 518 valid species distributed in all biogeographic realms, except Australasia and Antarctica. Here we provide a comprehensive dated phylogeny for Colletes based on Bayesian analysis of DNA sequence data of six loci: 28S rDNA, cytochrome c oxidase subunit 1, elongation factor-1α co...

The cleptoparasitic bee genus Epeolus Latreille, 1802 is for the first time reviewed for species occurring in the Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, and a single dichotomous identification key to the females and males of species present or likely to be present in these regions is presented. A total of 25 species have been confirmed as present a...

A database of Epeolus records in the Americas south of the United States, including those of the exclusively South American species E. variolosus (Holmberg, 1886) (not treated herein) and species revised in Onuferko (2018a). Included are all GPS coordinates used in the construction of species distribution maps.

Abstract, definition of acronyms, proposed common names for the treated species, and key (in Spanish). Resumen, definición de acrónimos, nombres comunes propuestos para las especies tratadas y clave (en español).

A neighbor-joining tree of COI sequences >200 bp in length of Epeolus spp. known or presumed to occur in the Americas south of the United States, generated in BOLDSYSTEMS (http://www.boldsystems.org/) and based on Kimura’s two parameter distance model. For species also occurring in Canada and the United States, sequences were published separately i...

The bee genus Epeolus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae) consists of 109 species, which are known to be exclusively cleptoparasites of polyester (or cellophane) bees of the genus Colletes Latreille (Hymenoptera: Colletidae). Both genera have a nearly cosmopolitan distribution and are represented on all continents except Antarctica and Australia. We pr...

Herein, the cleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bee genus Epeolus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) is revised for species occurring in North America, north of Mexico, and an updated checklist of all species known to occur in Canada and the United States of America is provided with comprehensive descriptions, diagnoses, and a single dichotomous key (using the same couple...

Database of Epeolus records

Neighbor-joining tree of DNA barcode sequences

The discovery of a gynandromorph of a North American Epeolus Latreille is reported. A specimen of E. flavofasciatus Smith from Flagstaff, Arizona, USA discovered in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) exhibits male-specific features on the left and female-specific features on the right, consistent with bilateral gynandro...

• We surveyed the treatment of taxonomic information in 567 papers published in nine entomological journals in 2016. • The proportion of papers that provide taxonomic data in sufficient detail to permit precise validation of taxonomic identifications is vanishingly small: most did not cite identification methods, most did not state whether identifi...

Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Apiformes) are taxonomically and ecologically diverse, with a wide range of social complexity, nesting preferences, floral associations, and biogeographic restrictions. A Canadian bee checklist, greatly assisted by the gene-assisted approach of DNA barcoding, is nearing completion. Previous evaluation of bee diversity in...

The effects of habitat restoration are usually studied using cross-sectional comparisons of species assemblages among sites of various ages or disturbance levels. Longitudinal studies, however, are necessary for detecting long-term responses to habitat restoration and for understanding annual demographic variation. To investigate the time course of...

In eastern North America, the field milkweed, Asclepias syriaca L. (Asclepiadaceae), is used in planting schemes to promote biodiversity conservation for numerous insects including the endangered monarch butterfly, Danaus plexippus (Linnaeus) (Nymphalidae). Less is known about its pollinators, and especially in urban habitats where it is planted of...

The species of the cleptoparasitic (cuckoo) bee genus Epeolus Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae) occurring in Canada are revised. A total of 12 species are confirmed, with one additional species (E. ilicis Mitchell) listed as possibly occurring in Canada. Morphological comparisons of primary types and continuous variation within species, in addition t...

We carried out an extensive survey of bee species in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada, by sampling various sites within three municipalities from 2003 to 2013. The municipalities were St. Catharines, Port Colborne, and Wainfleet. Sampling mainly consisted of pan-trapping, but also included sweeping through vegetation and targeted collection fr...

Studies of annual and geographic variation in eusocial bee populations suggest that more stringent environmental conditions result in stronger reproductive skew favouring queens, while moderate conditions favour increasing worker reproduction. To test these predictions, we compared the phenology and colony development of H. ligatus nesting in St. C...

Sweat bees are one of the most socially polymorphic lineages on the planet. In obligately eusocial species, newly enclosed females may become either queens or workers, depending on the environmental and social circumstances of the nest into which they emerge. In socially polymorphic species, females also have the option of nesting solitarily, found...