Hesperocolletes

Hesperocolletes douglasi, the Rottnest bee, is a now extinct species of plasterer bee that was endemic to Australia.

It was described from a single specimen collected in 1938 on Rottnest Island, located off the coast of Western Australia.

Description

The bee's body was black, shiny and 12 mm long and wings were brown and up to 8 mm long.

It was about the same size as a honeybee. It was generally black and brown and moderately hairy.^[1]

Hesperocolletes douglasi is superficially like a number of other native bees and careful examination under a microscope would be required to distinguish a specimen. Only the diagnostic features of the male can be given, and generally speaking, female bees differ from males in certain anatomical characters and sometimes the differences can be dramatic.^[1]

Taxonomy

Bee expert Charles Michener described and named the species in 1965 on the basis of this specimen, designating it as the ‘holotype’, and created the monotypic genus Hesperocolletes for Hesperocolletes douglasi alone. Unfortunately, no record of the circumstances of capture (e.g. flowers visited) is available.^[1]

The species belongs to the subfamily Paracolletinae, part of the large family Colletidae. Colletids are characterized by having a short, broad, blunt tongue (or ‘glossa’) (a flexible, hairy appendage at the end of the proboscis; not always visible as it can be retracted).

Paracolletines (at least in most species, including Hesperocolletes douglasi) have three submarginal cells in the fore wing and females usually have densely hairy hind legs (for carrying pollen).^[1] The diagnostic characters of H. douglasi can occur individually in various paracolletine bees, and it is the combination of those features that one must look for:^[1]

• lower part of face yellow-brown.
• labrum (a hinged flap attached to the lower margin of the face) more than twice as wide as long and not strongly convex.
• a distinct carina (sharp edge) around and especially behind each compound eye.
• tarsal claws with inner prongs expanded and flattened.

Habitat

Rottnest Island contains unique flora and fauna, such as Melaleuca lanceolata and Callistris preissii, and was remote from human activities. The reduction of tall or closed forested communities, initiated by frequent fire, probably led to the extinction of this 'native bee'.

To date, no other species of Hesperocolletes have been discovered, nor this species rediscovered, despite searches made on Rottnest Island, Garden Island, and coastal mainland areas north and south of Perth.

Hesperocolletes douglasi is officially listed as ‘presumed extinct’ under the Western Australian Wildlife Conservation Act.^[1] Nevertheless, there is a possibility that the species might survive somewhere in Western Australia.^[1]

See also

• Australian native bee
• Hymenoptera of Australia

References

External links

• Burbidge, Andrew A (2004). Threatened animals of Western Australia. Department of Conservation and Land Management. p. 145. ISBN 0-7307-5549-5. The change in vegetation probably eliminated the food plants on which the native bee depended. 
• Museum, Western Australian. "Native Bee – Presumed Extinct". http://museum.wa.gov.au/. WA Museum. Retrieved 9 February 2015.  External link in |website= (help)