Observations on the foraging preferences of Leioproctus (Filiglossa) Rayment (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) in eastern Australia

Fifty three bees representing three species in subgenus Filiglossa [(Leioproctus davisi Maynard (16 specimens), L. filamentosa (Rayment) Michener (36 specimens) and L. hamatus Maynard (one specimen)] were collected on nine Persoonia species (Proteaceae) distributed through New South Wales and Victoria. These records extend the foraging range of L. (Filiglossa) to ten Persoonia Sm. species: P. arborea F. Mueller, P. asperula L. Johnson & P. Weston, P. champaepeuce Lhotsky ex Meissner, P. isophylla K. Johnson & P. Weston, P. lanceolata Andrews, P. mollis subsp. nectans Krauss & L. Johnson, P. pinifolia L. Johnson & P. Weston, P. silvatica L. Johnson, P. subvellutina L. Johnson and P. virgata R. Br. Female bees outnumbered males by 70%. Fifty five per cent of female bees and 43% of males carried significant loads of Persoonia pollen. One, female, L. filamentosa carried pollen from more than one Persoonia species when Persoonia species were sympatric and had overlapping flowering periods. Pollen analyses indicated that some females of L. davisi and males of L. filamentosa also foraged on coblooming Asteraceae and Myrtaceae. The poor collections of L. (Filiglossa) bees between 1946 and 1991 were possibly due to the failure to identify a single grain of Persoonia pollen carried by the holotype of L. filamentosa.