Odd mouthpart character on female Augochlorella aurata

Elena Adams

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Jan 20, 2026, 9:51:17 PMJan 20

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Hi all,

I have had the pleasure of spending this week at the USGS bee lab while Sam Droege very kindly verified identifications for a large set of bees collected in urban yards in Ohio. While sorting through our Augochlorella specimens, we found an odd female Augochlorella aurata. The clypeus looks more male-like with a distinct white rim not seen in any other female specimens we were able to examine. I have included pictures of this odd female (thanks Sam for snapping these!) and will try to reply with additional pictures of a normal male and female since the listserv doesn't seem to like me posting with so many attachments.

Has anyone encountered this before? Is it a secret new species? A mutant? Perhaps a subtle gynandromorph? The antennal scapes on this specimen were two very different lengths, which might point to a gynandromorph situation. But all other characteristics (legs, hairs, etc.) were solidly female, as confirmed by Sam. If anyone has any thoughts on this mixed-up specimen, I would greatly appreciate it!

Elena Adams (she/her)

PhD Student

Department of Entomology

The Ohio State University

weird_female_mouthparts.jpg

weird_female_face.jpg

Elena Adams

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Jan 20, 2026, 9:53:32 PMJan 20

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Normal female mouthparts!

normal_female_mouthparts.jpg

normal_female_face.jpg

Elena Adams

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Jan 20, 2026, 9:55:15 PMJan 20

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Normal male mouthparts!

On Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 9:53:32 PM UTC-5 Elena Adams wrote:

Normal female mouthparts!

normal_male_mouthparts.jpg

normal_male_face.jpg

ejs...@comcast.net

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Jan 20, 2026, 10:36:56 PMJan 20

to adams...@gmail.com, beemonitoring

Hi Elena,

My thought would be mosaic gynandromorphy, where the gynandromorphy is somewhat random as opposed to bilateral or anterior/posterior gynandromorphy. These are more easily found in Lepidoptera (See Scriber, J.M., and M.H. Evans. 1988. Bilateral gynandromorphs, sexual and/or color mosaics in the tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae).

Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 26(1–4):39–57.). Oram reported mosaic gynandromorphy in a Hylaeus rudbeckiae specimen (See Oram, R. 2021. Gynandromorphy and other morphological aberrations in Hylaeus Fabricius (Hymenoptera: Colletidae: Hylaeinae) specimens from Colorado, USA. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 94(1): 59–65.).

Best,

Gene

Eugene J. Scarpulla

Editor, The Maryland Entomologist

Editor, Maryland Birdlife

Phoenix, Maryland

ejs...@comcast.net

www.mdentsoc.org

www.mdbirds.org

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