Re-identification of an exotic bee introduced to the hunter valley region, New South Wales -Seladonia hotoni (Vachal, 1903) (Hymenoptera: Halictidae)

In 2004 and 2006, well-established populations of an exotic halictine bee were found in the Upper Hunter Valley region of New South Wales, Australia. On the basis of morphology, the species was identified as Halictus (Seladonia) smaragdulus Vachal, 1895 by an expert familiar with that genus. Subsequently, it was discovered that there are six species in the S. smaragdula complex, but none of the six had the same mitochondrial DNA barcode as the species found in Australia. The introduced bee has been shown to be conspecific with an African species by mitochondrial COI DNA sequences and identified as Seladonia hotoni (Vachal, 1903) by morphology.