Lasioglossum (Dialictus) knereri Gibbs 2010

Lasioglossum (Dialictus) knereri Gibbs, 2010 ** [Holotype: PCYU; ♀ Richmond, British Columbia, Canada; May 14, 2003] This species represents a new record for the BCP and Mexico. We examined two males collected in the Baja California Mountains in Sierra San Pedro Mártir in July 2017 (MABC). Additionally, the BBPT collected this species in the Coastal Sage Matorral in June 2020 (2 ♂, 1 ♀), and Succulent Coastal Sage in March 2021 (1 ♀). Voucher specimens are in MABC. See fig. 176. These specimens are morphologically quite different from the type of L. knereri (possessing an enlarged, hooked tegula and much finer, denser punctation on the mesosoma) and may actually represent an undescribed species. However, DNA barcodes are indistinguishable from typical L. knereri. There is not yet sufficient evidence to consider these specimens as distinct, but such evidence might be found with dedicated taxonomic work. DNA barcodes are known to fail at species delimitation in certain cases within L. (Dialictus) (Gibbs 2018), and the complex including L. knereri, L. subversans, and L. cyaneonotus seems to be such a case, as none of these species can be reliably identified by barcodes alone. Additional genetic data might validate these specimens as distinct, along with several other morphs which seem to belong to this complex. We report these specimens as L. knereri, and not a morphospecies, because seemingly intermediate morphs exist in California, supporting the alternative hypothesis that L. knereri is simply morphologically variable.