Rediscovering the eusocial sweat bee Lasioglossum marginatum (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) in Sicily through DNA barcoding

Abstract

Sicily (Italy) is an important hotspot diversity for bees and new species records are constantly reported for the island. Here, we rediscovered after 45 years without records, the occurrence in Eastern Sicily of Lasioglossum marginatum (Brullé 1832) confirmed by DNA barcoding. This is the only known species of eusocial sweat bees (Halictidae) with perennial colonies. Since a single female was collected in our large 2-years bee sampling, combined with its absence in previous collections, this species is suggested to be rare in Sicily.

Keywords:

• Lasioglossum
• DNA barcoding
• bee conservation
• Mediterranean islands
• Italy

Acknowledgments

We thank Cristina Ramón Hernández for her help doing the pictures under the stereomicroscope.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Fundación Seneca (Spain) under Grant 19908/GERM/2015 of Regional Excellence and by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain) under Grant CGL2017-83046-P.