Abstract

The 60 species of native Hylaeus bees in the Hawaiian Islands are important pollinators in native ecosystems, but they have been almost completely ignored in conservation studies. The only previous assessment of the conservation status of the individual species was not based on recent collections. Here I report on conservation status of all known species, based on collections made from 1999 to 2002. Species are arranged into six categories according to degree of threat, and species considered to be threatened are discussed individually. Five species have not been collected recently from one or more islands from which they are historically known, seven are restricted to endangered habitat, 10 are considered to be very rare and potentially endangered, and 10 have not been collected recently and could be extinct. With such a high proportion of rare species and the importance of Hylaeus species as pollinators, further work on their ecology is needed.

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