Leuconistic bee morphs?

[Kit Prendergast]

Hi Beeple,

I was wondering if anyone had experience in finding bees that were potentially leuconistic ?

I was doing surveys in the Jarrah Forest in Western Australia and came across a number of goldish specimens of Exoneura (Apidae: Allodapini). There were a number of other Exoneura species, and all of them have black head and thorax, and a redish abdomen. Because of this, and since I didn't find just one, I designated them as a different species. I had them DNA barcoded and they came back as the same species as another I had collected (tentatively E. pictifrons - there is no key to the Exoneura and descriptions were written many decades ago, making IDing extremely tricky).

I know that newly emerged bees termed callows can be pale, but these were collected out foraging, and it is my understanding that callow bees often don't fly yet as their wings need to dry out, and once they do, but that time their coluoration has also become normal.

Would appreciate if anyone had any ideas about this!

Photos below:

Normal colouration:

Pale type:

Best,

Kit

--

Dr Kit Prendergast

Native bee scientist, conservation ecologist and science communicator

University of Southern QLD Postdoctoral Researcher (Pollination Ecology)

Wild Bee Specialist Group Communications Lead

Adjunct Curtin University and Forrest Scholar Alumni

Find native bee resources and more on my Patreon The Bee Babette: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheBeeBabette

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1164-6099 

Research: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Kit-Prendergast/research

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Insta: @bee.babette_performer:

https://www.instagram.com/bee.babette_performer/?hl=en

[James Cane]

You raise an intriguing possibility, Kit. I will forward to Jason Gibbs, as the Lasioglossum that he studies can differ in metasomal melanization plus he has barcoded a bunch of them.

Jim

James H. Cane

Native bee and pollination ecologist

Emeritus USDA-ARS Bee Lab, Logan, Utah

owner -  WildBeecology

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jim-Cane

https://www.zotero.org/jimbee

https://sites.google.com/view/jimcanewildbeecology/home

"Knowledge and comprehension are the joy and justification of humanity"
 Alexander von Humboldt

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[Keng-Lou James Hung]

Cool observation Kit. In North America we have several bee species that show a gradient of integumental melanization. Several Perdita species have forms that grade between mostly metallic dark integument throughout, to mostly yellow throughout (e.g., Perdita maculigera, Perdita variegata). There are also several Andrena species and at least one Dieunomia species in which the tergal segments have varying degrees of red--some seem to be more or less fixed by population, whereas in other cases there is significant variation in how much red vs black there is in a single population. And then there's Halictus ligatus (and perhaps H. poeyi though I haven't encountered it myself) where the vast majority of individuals I encounter have dark brown tergal integument, but everty so often you see one that is very light brown or even reddish orange. 

Definitely seems to be worth another look :)

Cheers,

James

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[Douglas Yanega]

On top of the examples already mentioned, one of the more dramatic cases
is the "black-tailed" form of Agapostemon melliventris, which normally
has a pale honey-colored metasoma. There really don't seem to be
intermediates, so one has to suspect some rare recessive allele, or
possibly an autosomal mutation - and only in certain geographic areas.

If I remember correctly, Michener documented that an augochlorine
(presently Pseudaugochlora sordicutis, if I recall correctly), had black
and green morphs, and in equal frequency, suggesting simple Mendelian
inheritance.

Peace,

--
Doug Yanega Dept. of Entomology Entomology Research Museum
Univ. of California, Riverside, CA 92521-0314 phone: 951-827-4315
FaceBook: Doug Yanega (disclaimer: opinions are mine, not UCR's)
https://faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/yanega.html
"There are some enterprises in which a careful disorderliness
is the true method" - Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Chap. 82

[Brock Alexander Harpur]

Neat find! Can't say much about native bees but we've got at least one example of amelanism in honey bees where a single recessive mutation causes this lovely 'marshmallow' phenotype (image credit Ben Dictus). Paper out soon, hopefully. 

There was also a recent paper by Oswalt et al (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0803) showing a link between humidity and body color in sweat bees that might be of interest. 

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From: beemon...@googlegroups.com <beemon...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of James Cane <jim....@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 10:01 AM
To: kitprend...@gmail.com <kitprend...@gmail.com>
Cc: beemonitoring <beemon...@googlegroups.com>; Mike Schwarz <mikeandka...@gmail.com>; Ken <kwa...@museum.vic.gov.au>
Subject: Re: [Beemonitoring] Leuconistic bee morphs?

 

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[H]

Kit- This may not be exactly what you are looking for but there has been recent work on Bombus hair color variation as well as Laberge's work on Andrena sp. and Melissodies sp. I know there are more examples than listed below but these are the ones that came to mind. .

Cheers, H

The following example was taken from:.

LaBerge, Wallace E., "A Revision of the Bees of the Genus Andrena of the Western Hemisphere Part II. Plastandrena, Aporandrena, Charitandrena" (1969). La. Paper 2.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_la/2

Variation of hair coloration:

LaBerge, Wallace E., "A Revision of the Bees of the Genus Melissodes in North and Central America. Part III (Hymenoptera, Apidae)" (1961). La. Paper 30.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_la/30

.

Harold W Ikerd (W7IKE)

Time flies like an arrow

stoneflies like detritus....

On Tue, May 19, 2026 at 6:16 AM Kit Prendergast <kitprend...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[Jason Gibbs]

Maybe a different phenomenon, but there are lots of metasomal colour variants in Lasioglossum. For example, all of the below are Lasioglossum hudsoniellum.

Some Mitchell (1960) described 'Evylaeus', were actually previously known dull metallic Dialictus that didn't have the apparent metallic colours. 

If age was a factor, then maybe the wing / mandibular wear might correlate with the darkness of your Exoneura

Jason Gibbs | Associate Professor | Curator

J. B. Wallis / R. E. Roughley Museum of Entomology 

Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
12 Dafoe Rd. Animal Science/Entomology Bldg

Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada 

(he/him/his) 

 

I live and work in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis .

--

[Mariana Acuña Cordero]

In Costa Rica, it is quite common to observe individuals of Tetragonisca angustula (Apidae: Meliponini) with significant variations in color (ranging from yellowish-orange to black), and we are investigating whether there is a relationship between color and possible subspecies, as well as environmental conditions and other factors. We had not considered the possibility that this might be leucism, but rather a phenotypic variation in color. However, this is an interesting hypothesis.

On Tue, May 19, 2026 at 6:16 AM Kit Prendergast <kitprend...@gmail.com> wrote:

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[laurence packer]

other examples of metallic polymorphism:

Lasioglossum unicolor (I think that's the name) from,

maybe the canary Islands - metallic or not

Agapostemon obscuratus and viridulus on Cuba I think are the same

and there's a species the name of which I have forgotten where

in the DR there were bright metallic, dull metallic and black females

but only bright or black males - which is what you'd expect

with a polymorphism with incomplete dominance.

 

Lots of examples of melanism in a lot of bees, albinism less so.

I guess Mike Schwarz or his past lab folks should know whether

the brown cuticle of that Exoneura could be because they are

young - I think some of those bees darken up slowly.

Some Braunsapis have brown versions - I think generally treated

as species differences, but perhaps the same thing is happening

with them?

 

cheers

 

laurence

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 10:37 AM
From: "Douglas Yanega" <dya...@gmail.com>
To: beemon...@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [Beemonitoring] Leuconistic bee morphs?

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[Douglas Yanega]

Forgive me, but my pedantic side can't let it pass, since no one else
has commented. As far as I am aware, "leuconistic" is not a word. The
word is "leucistic".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leucism

Based on Google, "leuconistic" is nearly always a misspelling of the
name "Leuconostoc", a common bacterium used in sourdough. The very few
other uses seem to be attributed to birdwatchers. Don't let the birders
win. ;-)

[Kit Prendergast]

Hi Beeple,

Thank you for this interesting discussion and sharing of your observations of pale morph bees.

I'd like to propose - who would like to write a neat little natural history of these observations we have - some nice photos of the 'normal' and pale morphs, their frequency (where data exist), and a discussion about possible explanations (proximal or ultimate), the phylogenetic spread etc.

If anyone is interested please let me know and I can start a separate spread.

P.s. I'm not sure if everyone got Mike's reply as he said it seemed to bounce, I've copied below:

For these pigmentation/color issues, I think they fall into three broad categories, geographic variation, environmenally determined colours, and socially mediated variation.  It’s also worth thinking about pigmentation versus structural colours… there have been some recent really neat papers about structural colours, especially the metallic colours and how they may be influenced by environment during late-stage pupal development.

As for Exoneura, my feeliings are that callow coloration is socially mediated, perhaps to signal reproductive subordination (or perhaps to  reduce attractiveness to males… because repructive females may be a ’threat’ to queens ??  We do know that in one key Exoneura species, queens guard the nest and refuce entry to subordinates that are potentially mated)

I’d be curious to see if anyone has info that suggests delayed pigmentation that seems related to social hierarchies in non-allodapine bees… perhaps in meliponines or eusocial halictines?

And here’s a rather silly suggestion… In some colonial thrips species females seem to have delayed melanization that, seemingly, allows them to develop distended abdomens for when they develop huge ovaries.  The notion is that partially melanized cuticle allows body dimensions to expand, allowing larger ovaries.

Ahhh.. the rich tapestry of life!

Cheers….mike

On Wed, 20 May 2026 at 15:25, Mike Schwarz <mikeandka...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

For these pigmentation/color issues, I think they fall into three broad categories, geographic variation, environmenally determined colours, and socially mediated variation.  It’s also worth thinking about pigmentation versus structural colours… there have been some recent really neat papers about structural colours, especially the metallic colours and how they may be influenced by environment during late-stage pupal development.

As for Exoneura, my feeliings are that callow coloration is socially mediated, perhaps to signal reproductive subordination (or perhaps to  reduce attractiveness to males… because repructive females may be a ’threat’ to queens ??  We do know that in one key Exoneura species, queens guard the nest and refuce entry to subordinates that are potentially mated)

I’d be curious to see if anyone has info that suggests delayed pigmentation that seems related to social hierarchies in non-allodapine bees… perhaps in meliponines or eusocial halictines?

And here’s a rather silly suggestion… In some colonial thrips species females seem to have delayed melanization that, seemingly, allows them to develop distended abdomens for when they develop huge ovaries.  The notion is that partially melanized cuticle allows body dimensions to expand, allowing larger ovaries.

Ahhh.. the rich tapestry of life!

Cheers….mike

Mike Schwarz

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=oa2nhpMAAAAJ&hl=en
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michael-Schwarz-6

On 20 May 2026, at 3:30 am, Jason Gibbs <dial...@gmail.com> wrote:

Maybe a different phenomenon, but there are lots of metasomal colour variants in Lasioglossum. For example, all of the below are Lasioglossum hudsoniellum.

<image.png>

Some Mitchell (1960) described 'Evylaeus', were actually previously known dull metallic Dialictus that didn't have the apparent metallic colours. 

If age was a factor, then maybe the wing / mandibular wear might correlate with the darkness of your Exoneura

Jason Gibbs | Associate Professor | Curator

J. B. Wallis / R. E. Roughley Museum of Entomology 

Department of Entomology, University of Manitoba
12 Dafoe Rd. Animal Science/Entomology Bldg

Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada 

(he/him/his) 

 

I live and work in the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anisininew, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis .

On Tue, 19 May 2026 at 07:16, Kit Prendergast <kitprend...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Beeple,

I was wondering if anyone had experience in finding bees that were potentially leuconistic ?

I was doing surveys in the Jarrah Forest in Western Australia and came across a number of goldish specimens of Exoneura (Apidae: Allodapini). There were a number of other Exoneura species, and all of them have black head and thorax, and a redish abdomen. Because of this, and since I didn't find just one, I designated them as a different species. I had them DNA barcoded and they came back as the same species as another I had collected (tentatively E. pictifrons - there is no key to the Exoneura and descriptions were written many decades ago, making IDing extremely tricky).

I know that newly emerged bees termed callows can be pale, but these were collected out foraging, and it is my understanding that callow bees often don't fly yet as their wings need to dry out, and once they do, but that time their coluoration has also become normal.

Would appreciate if anyone had any ideas about this!

Photos below:

Normal colouration:

<image.png>

Pale type:

--

Adjunct Curtin University and Univerisity of Western Australia