Augochlora leptoloba is a species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of sweat bee

Halictidae

Halictidae is a cosmopolitan family of the order Hymenoptera consisting of small to midsize bees which are usually dark-colored and often metallic in appearance...

 in the genus Augochlora and the extinct monotypic

Monotypic

In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group with only one biological type. The term's usage differs slightly between botany and zoology. The term monotypic has a separate use in conservation biology, monotypic habitat, regarding species habitat conversion eliminating biodiversity and...

 subgenus Electraugochlora.

History and classification

The species is known from a single female specimen, the holotype

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

, currently in the private collection owned by Ettore Morone of Turin, Italy, as number "M-2521", and which was first studied by Dr. Michael S. Engel

Michael S. Engel

Michael S. Engel is an American paleontologist and entomologist. He has undertaken field work in Central Asia, Asia Minor, and the Western Hemisphere, and published more than 300 papers in scientific journals. He was trained at the University of Kansas where in 1993 he received a B.S. in Cellular...

. Dr. Engel published his type description in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History

Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History

The Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the fields of zoology, paleontology, and geology...

volume 250 published in 2000. The subgenus name is a combination of the Latin electrum meaning "amber" and Augochlora, the type genus of the tribe Augochlorini. The species name is derived from a combination of the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 words leptos which means "small" and lobos which means "lobe".

Description

The type specimen is well preserved in early Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about . The Miocene was named by Sir Charles Lyell. Its name comes from the Greek words and and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern sea invertebrates than the Pliocene. The Miocene follows the Oligocene...

 (Burdigalian stage

Burdigalian

The Burdigalian is, in the geologic timescale, an age or stage in the early Miocene. It spans the time between 20.43 ± 0.05 Ma and 15.97 ± 0.05 Ma...

) Dominican amber

Dominican amber

Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic. Resin from the extinct species Hymenaea protera is the source of Dominican amber and probably of most amber found in the tropics....

 from deposits on the island of Hispaniola

Hispaniola

Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...

. The presence of a epistomal sulcus, the groove defining the lateral and dorsal margin of the clypeus

Clypeus

The clypeus is one of the sclerites that makes up the "face" of an arthropod.In insects, the clypeus delimits the lower margin of the face, with the labrum articulated along the ventral margin of the clypeus. The mandibles bracket the labrum, but do not touch the clypeus. The dorsal margin of the...

, places A. leptoloba within the large genus Augochlora. However due to the lack of a preoccipital carina, the ridge behind the simple eyes on the top of the head found in the living member of the genus, A. leptoloba was placed in a new subgenus, Electraugochlora. Overall the holotype has a total length, not including antennae, of 8.5 millimetre (0.334645669291339 in) and a forewing length of 4.6 millimetre (0.181102362204724 in). As a whole the female has a dull metallic green coloration with faint metallic copper highlights to the head, with the region above the mouth being brown. The legs are brown with no discernible highlights, and the wings are hyaline

Hyaline

The term hyaline denotes a substance with a glass-like appearance.-Histopathology:In histopathological medical usage, a hyaline substance appears glassy and pink after being stained with haematoxylin and eosin — usually it is an acellular, proteinaceous material...

with brown veins. The thorax, like the head, is dull metallic green coloration with faint metallic copper highlights and the underside of the abdomen brown and the upper side brown with metallic green highlights. The legs and terga possess a coating of short gold colored hair.