© The Authors, 2012. Journal compilation © Australian Museum, Sydney, 2012 
Records of the Australian Museum (2012) Vol. 64: 1-50. ISSN 0067-1975 
http://dx.doi.Org/10.3853/j.0067-1975.64.2012.1589 
Revision of the Australian Bee Genus Trichocolletes Cockerell 
(Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Paracolletini) 
Michael Batley 1 * and Terry F. Houston 2 
1 Australian Museum, 6 College Street, Sydney NSW 2010, Australia 
michael.batley @ gmail.com 
2 Western Australian Museum, Locked Bag 49, Welshpool D.C. WA 6986, Australia 
Terry.Houston@museum.wa.gov.au 
Abstract. The endemic Australian bee genus Trichocolletes is revised. Forty species are recognised, 
including twenty-three new species: Trichocolletes aeratus, T. albigenae, T. avialis, T. brachytomus, T. 
brunilabrum, T. capillosus, T. centralis, T. dundasensis, T. fuscus, T. gelasinus, T. grandis, T. lacaris, 
T. leucogenys, T. luteorufus, T. macrognathus, T. micans, T. nitens, T. orientalis, T. platyprosopis, T. 
serotinus, T. simus, T. soror and T. tuberatus. Four new synonymies are proposed: Paracolletes marginatus 
lucidus Cockerell, 1929 = T. chrysostomus (Cockerell, 1929); T. daviesiae Rayment, 1931 = T. venustus 
(Smith, 1862); T. marginatulus Michener, 1965 = T. sericeus (Smith, 1862); T. nigroclypeatus Rayment, 
1929 = T. venustus (Smith, 1862). Trichocolletes rufus (Rayment, 1930) is moved to Leioproctus and T. 
rufopilosus (Rayment, 1935) to Anthoglossa. Descriptions are given for new species and redescriptions 
for species described before 1965, including first descriptions of males of T. aureotinctus (Cockerell), T. 
burnsi Michener, T. latifrons (Cockerell) and T. maximus (Cockerell) and the females of T. dowerinensis 
Rayment and T. rufibasis (Cockerell). Lectotypes are designated for Lamprocolletes venustus Smith and 
Anthoglossa plumata Smith. Keys to species are provided for both sexes, as are distribution maps and a 
summary of recorded floral visitation. 
Batley, Michael, and Terry F. Houston. 2012. Revision of the Australian bee genus Trichocolletes Cockerell 
(Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Paracolletini). Records of the Australian Museum 64(1): 1-50. 
The monobasic genus Trichocolletes (Cockerell, 1912) was 
erected for the species Lamprocolletes venustus Smith by 
virtue of its conspicuously hairy eyes. Rayment (1929,1931) 
added four additional species so that Cockerell’s 1934 survey 
of the family Colletidae in Australia, listed five names in the 
genus Trichocolletes. When Michener (1965) revised the 
genera of Australian bees, he recognized that species without 
hairy eyes, previously placed in Anthoglossa and Paracolletes , 
belonged in a more broadly defined genus. At the same time 
Michener created a separate subgenus for the species T. 
pulcherrimus Michener, a decision he recently suggested 
(Michener, 2007) might merit reexamination. Since 1965, 
two new species have been added (Houston, 1990), but there 
has been no revision of the genus. This is, therefore, the first 
* author for correspondence 
species-level revision of the genus Trichocolletes. 
A recent molecular phylogeny of the family Colletidae 
(Almeida & Danforth, 2009) concluded that the Australian 
and South American genera traditionally included in the 
tribe Paracolletini (Michener, 2007), excluding Callomelitta 
and Paracolletes s. str., form a monophyletic group and it 
has been proposed (Almeida et al., 2012) that the name 
Neopasiphaeinae should be used for this group. The 
phylogenetic analysis suggested that the genus Anthoglossa 
is sister to all other Neopasiphaeinae and the genus 
Trichocolletes is, in turn, sister to all Neopasiphaeinae other 
than Anthoglossa. Until morphological clarification of the 
status of Paracolletes is available, we have opted to follow 
Michener’s (2007) family-level names. 
