''Hylaeus hilaris'' is a species of

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

, also known by the common name hilaris yellow-faced bee. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and known only from a single population. In September 2016, along with six other Hawaiian ''Hylaeus'' species, ''H. hilaris'' was listed for protection under the United States

Endangered Species Act The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...

. This marked a first listing for any bee species in the US.

Description

''Hylaeus hilaris'' is large relative to other coastal Hawaiian ''Hylaeus'' species. Males have an almost completely yellow face with other yellow markings on the body and wings of smoky coloring. Their

metasoma The metasoma is the posterior part of the body, or tagma, of arthropods whose body is composed of three parts, the other two being the prosoma and the mesosoma. In insects, it contains most of the digestive tract, respiratory system, and circula ...

is red. Females have some brown markings.

Distribution and habitat

''Hylaeus hilaris'' is now known only from a single population (of unknown size) in the coastal shrublands of the Moomomi Preserve on

Molokai Molokai , or Molokai (), is the fifth most populated of the eight major islands that make up the Hawaiian Islands, Hawaiian Islands archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It is 38 by 10 miles (61 by 16 km) at its greatest length an ...

. Threats to the species include habitat degradation by nonnative animals and plants, predation by nonnative insects, fires and climate change.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2913861 Colletidae Insects of Hawaii Endemic fauna of Hawaii Endangered fauna of Hawaii Hymenoptera of Oceania Insects described in 1879 ESA endangered species