Description of Leioproctus (Leioproctus) hukarere new species (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Colletidae), a new native bee from the Mackenzie Country, New Zealand

ABSTRACT

A new species of endemic colletid bee in Leioproctus (Leioproctus) is described from two areas in the Mackenzie Country (MK), South Island, New Zealand. Features distinguishing the species from other species are outlined and available biological data for the new species are presented. The recognition of L. (L.) hukarere as a new species restores the number of species of Leioproctus present in New Zealand to 18. The total number of bee species in New Zealand is now 42.

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:17B78D41-66DO-4954-AF45-BFF407295D8F

KEYWORDS:

• Leioproctus (Leioproctus) hukarere
• native bee
• new species
• New Zealand

Acknowledgements

I thank Ms S. Anderson and Mr C. Woolmore of the DOC office, Twizel, for making available to me and allowing me to examine the bees trapped by them, for guidance to their trapping sites on the Tasman Riverbed, for assistance with transport, netting of bees, and useful discussions as to the possible flowering plants that may prove to be pollen and nectar sources for L. hukarere. Ms Anderson also liaised with local iwi concerning an earlier proposed name for the species. Also, I thank staff of the Otago Museum for lending me the six bees captured at Blue Stream by A.C. Harris, and I thank Tony Harris for informative discussions regarding the nature of the Blue Stream area when he captured the bees there. Finally, I would like to thank Darren Ward of Landcare Research for permission to use the map from Crosby et al. (1976).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

Preparation of this paper was partially financed by Subcontract Number 30402 to Plant & Food Research Ltd, under the MBIE funded Programme Number C11X1309 to Plant & Food Research Ltd.