A new species of Habralictus Moure from Dominica, Lesser Antilles (Hymenoptera, Halictidae)

Abstract A new species of Habralictus Moure (Apoidea, Halictidae) is described from the island of Dominica, Habralictus gonzalezi sp. n. The species is distinguished from other West Indian Habralictus and a key is provided to the West Indian Habralictus. Brief comments on the genus Habralictus and bee species of Dominica are provided.


Introduction
Habralictus Moure is a genus of small Neotropical bees known from southern Brazil north to the Jalisco province of Mexico (Michener 2007). Habralictus is known to form solitary and communal underground nests (Michener and Lange 1958;Michener et al. 1979). Twenty-four species have been described (Moure 2007;Smith-Pardo 2009) but more species undoubtedly occur on the mainland (Smith-Pardo 2009). Only two species have been reported from the Lesser Antilles, H. claviventris (Ashmead, 1900) from St. Vincent and the Grenadines and H. insularis Smith-Pardo (2009)

from Grenada.
Habralictus belongs to the halictid tribe Caenohalictini (or Caenohalictina of Halictini sensu lato), which is composed mostly of large-bodied Neotropical genera (Roberts and Brooks 1987;Michener 2007). Habralictus can be distinguished from other halictines by the following combination of characters: size small (4.0-6.5 mm), head and mesosoma bright iridescent green to blackish (usually with metallic tints), fore wing with strong distal veins (i.e. 1rs-m, 2r-sm), female metafemur with scopa, metasoma terga without apical or basal hair bands (females often with yellow maculations), posterior surface of propodeum not enclosed by carinae, inner metatibial spur pectinate (usually ciliate in males), dorsal surface of propodeum (including metapostnotum) with long horizontal portion, eyes bare or with short setae. Male Habralictus have metasoma petiolate.
Two subgenera of Habralictus have been recognised in the past, Habralictus sensu stricto and Zikaniella Moure (see Michener 2007). The latter seems to render the former paraphyletic (Gonçalves and Melo 2010) so Zikaniella should be considered a junior synonym (Habralictus has precedence ;Michener 2007). Habralictus insularis was reported to have characteristics of both nominal subgenera (Smith-Pardo 2009), but this was apparently an error due to the application of female characters of H. insularis (i.e. the pectinate inner metatibial spur) to the subgeneric key, which is based solely on males (Michener 2007).
A new species of Habralictus is described from material collected in the Commonwealth of Dominica. This species is the most northern representative of Habralictus in the Lesser Antilles and only the fourth halictid bee known from Dominica (Crawford 1914;Eickwort and Stage 1972).

Methods
Descriptions are modified from a format used for other halictid bees (e.g. Gibbs 2010Gibbs , 2011. Terminology for structures follows that of Engel (2001), and Michener (2007 and for sculpturing that of Harris (1979). The following abbreviations are used in the descriptions: upper ocular distance (UOD), lower ocular distance (LOD), and lateral ocellar diameter (OD; used as a relative measure for hair length). Flagellomeres and metasomal terga and sterna are referred to by "F", "T", and "S" followed by the appropriate number. Specimens examined were deposited at BBSL, Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory, USDA-ARS, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA. Individual paratypes will be deposited at other major bee collections including the AMNH, American Museum of Natural History, New York, New York, USA; CUIC, Cornell University Insect Collection, Ithaca, New York, USA; National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA; PCYU, Packer Collection York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and SEMC, Snow Entomological Museum, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Measurements were taken using an ocular micrometer in a Zeiss Stemi SV 6 microscope (Oberkochen, Germany) and by examining Figs 2, 3, 8 and 9 using Adobe Photoshop CS5 (Adobe Systems Inc.). Measurements of the head were taken in frontal view (as in Figs 2, 8). Head length was measured medially from the vertex to the distal margin of the clypeus. Head width was measured from the outer margins of the compound eyes. UOD and LOD were taken to be the minimum distance between inner margins of the compound eyes, measured from above and below the eye emargination, respectively. The supraclypeal area was measured from the lower margin of the antennal sockets to the upper margin of the clypeus. The width of the mesosoma was measured between the outer margins of the pronotal lobes in dorsal view. The lengths of the mesoscutellum and dorsal propodeal surface were measured medially in dorsal view. Description. Female. (Figs 1-7). Body length: 3.5-4. 3 mm. Head length: 1.04-1.14 mm. Head width: 1.10-1.24 mm. Forewing length: 3.0-3.1 mm.
Colour. Head: Mostly green; face with golden and coppery reflections. Labrum and lower half of clypeus dark brown. Mandible brownish yellow except apex red. Antenna dark brown, except lateral surface of scape dull yellow and ventral surface of flagellum orange-yellow. Vertex dark green-blue. Mesosoma: Dark green dorsally, lighter ventrally. Pronotal lobe dark brown. Ventral half of mesepisternum golden or brassy. Fore leg yellow, except profemur on dorsal half (sometimes) and ventrally. Mid leg dark brown, except protrochanter and posterior portion of probasitarsus yellowish, in some cases profemur yellow. Hind leg dark brown, except posterior (and sometimes anterior) surface infused with yellow, sometimes entire metatrochanter and metafemur yellow. Tegula light brown, translucent. Pterostigma dark brown. Wings hyaline with dark setae. Dorsal surface of propodeum brown except basomedial triangle of green. Metasoma: Terga brown, except sometimes with basomedial patches of yellow. Metasomal sterna light brown to yellow.
Colour. Head: Mostly blue-green. Labrum, mandible, and lower margin of clypeus yellow. Antenna dark brown, except ventral surface of flagellum orange-brown. Ocellar area pale green. Mesosoma: Blue-green, with pale green and purple reflections. Pronotal lobe brown. Fore leg yellow, except ventral surface of profemur brown with slight hint of metallic. Mid leg yellow, except anterior surface of mesofemur, mesotibia, and mesotarsus. Hind leg light brown, infused with yellow, except metatrochanter yellow. Dorsal surface of propodeum purplish. Metasoma: Brown, paler ventrally.
Etymology. The specific epithet is named for Victor H. González-Betancourt for his contributions to bee taxonomy and his encouragement and assistance with this manuscript.

.Habralictus insularis
Habralictus gonzalezi is only the 18 th described species of bee recorded from the island of Dominica (Table 2). The bee fauna as currently known was almost entirely described by Crawford (1914; see also Moure et al. 2007; Table 2). Nearly twice as many species (31) are known from both St. Vincent and the Grenadines to the south and Puerto Rico to the North (Moure et al. 2007;Genaro and Franz 2008;Ascher and Pickering 2011). Other islands in the Lesser Antilles have even fewer recorded species than Dominica. This is includes Grenada which lies between St. Vincent and the Grenadines and mainland South America. It is likely that many more species of bees occur on these islands, particularly in the halictid fauna, for which several new Caribbean species have been described in recent years (Engel 2001(Engel , 2011a(Engel , 2011bGenaro 2001). Two species of Lasioglossum (Dialictus) and one species of Sphecodes have also been examined from Dominica but description of these (if appropriate) will be done after a more thorough study of the West Indian species has been completed.