2 Masked Bee at Kurnell, NSW
Identification history
| Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) sp. (genus & subgenus) | 11 Oct 2022 | michael.batley | ||
| Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) minusculus | 11 Oct 2022 | Roger |
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User's notes
All of the bees were taken in the Kama Botany Bay NP, in or near the Yena picnic area.
3 comments
michael.batley
wrote:
11 Oct 2022
Not really. There are many small Hylaeus species with pale marks on the face and part of the legs and on that basis could be said to be like your photo. It is also important to know whether one is looking at a male or a female.
H. minusculus is a rather slender species and I would have expected to be able to notice that even at the angle shown. If it were a male H. minusculus, there would be no black between the face marks at the side and in the middle of the face and the scapes at the base of the antennae would be yellow, not black. My count of antennal segments, however, suggests that it is a female and a female H. minusculus would have no yellow at all in the middle of the face.
I am afraid that the identification of masked bee species can often depend on small differences like this.
H. minusculus is a rather slender species and I would have expected to be able to notice that even at the angle shown. If it were a male H. minusculus, there would be no black between the face marks at the side and in the middle of the face and the scapes at the base of the antennae would be yellow, not black. My count of antennal segments, however, suggests that it is a female and a female H. minusculus would have no yellow at all in the middle of the face.
I am afraid that the identification of masked bee species can often depend on small differences like this.
Location information
- Coordinates 151.230209-34.011634
- Maps Kamay Botany Bay National Park
- Places Kurnell, NSW
Sighting information
- 1 Abundance
- 8 Oct 2022 11:51 AM Recorded on
- Roger Recorded by
-
Collections
Insects Bees (Hymenoptera, Apiformes) Roger Greater Sydney NatureMapr
Additional information
- Less than 5mm Animal size
Species information
- Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) sp. (genus & subgenus) Scientific name
- Masked Bee Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-invasive or negligible
- Up to 791m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
Record quality
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
- GPS evidence of location
- Description
- Additional attributes
