Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) chlorosoma

Hylaeine colletid bee at Red Hill, ACT

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Identification history

Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) chlorosoma	27 Feb 2019	michael.batley
Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) chlorosoma	27 Feb 2019	MichaelMulvaney
Hylaeus (Prosopisteron) chlorosoma	14 Nov 2018	PeterA

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User's notes

Females on the plants with males on the lookout!

5 comments

MichaelBedingfield wrote:

27 Feb 2019

Hi Peter. Thanks for your photos. I have downloaded the original photo no. 3, cropped it and added it back to be used on the Species page, see:-
https://canberra.naturemapr.org/Community/Species/Details/31860

PeterA wrote:

21 Aug 2021

Correct name according to the AFD is Hylaeus chlorosomus, not H. chlorosoma.

michael.batley wrote:

21 Aug 2021

What an interesting little naming issue that needs to be cleaned up. You are quite right Peter, AFD has accepted Michener's change from the original chlorosoma to chlorosomus because that is the most recent taxonomic work on Hylaeus (Prosopisteron). When Terry Houston publishes a revision of the subgenus I believe he will correct Michener's mistake and return to the original spelling. My understanding is that soma is a Greek noun meaning body and the gender is neuter. So when transliterated to Latin it becomes a Latin neuter noun, not an adjective. Only adjectives need to agree with the gender of the generic name.

PeterA wrote:

21 Aug 2021

Thanks, Michael - I'll leave it to Terry to sort out. I was quite happy with chlorosoma, but I can see there is also an argument for being consistent with the AFD and reverting back to chlorosoma when and if Terry's revision is published down the track.

michael.batley wrote:

21 Aug 2021

Like you, I have been unsure about the best thing to do. The ICNZ says that incorrect spellings are not "available names", which means that they are not to be treated as synonyms and do not require any formal nomenclatural act to change them back to the correct spelling. I therefore decided that the best approach was to use the correct name.

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