Phylogeny of the Augochlora clade with the description of four new species (Hymenoptera,Apoidea)

The Augochlora clade includes four genera: Augochlora Smith, Augochlorella Sandhouse, Ceratalictus Moure, and Pereirapis Moure. This is one of the richest and most widespread groups of Augochlorini bees. There are about 150 species, which occur from Argentina to Canada. The species of Augochlora clade are considered solitary to facultatively social, except Ceratalictus for which nothing is known. Wood nesting behavior arose once in the clade, in Augochlora sensu strictu. The objective of this study is to describe four new species and to present a revised phylogenetic analysis of the Augochlora clade for the placement of these species. The morphological matrix comprised 77 characters and 42 terminals, and resulted in two most parsimonious trees. The monophyly of the Augochlora clade is corroborated. Ceratalictus and Pereirapis are considered as sister groups and Ceratalictus inflexus sp. nov. came as sister to other species of Ceratalictus. Augochlora and Augochlorella are monophyletic and sister groups. Both extant subgenera of Augochlora were corroborated as monophyletic. Augochlorella comis is considered as sister group to the rest of Augochlorella species. All Augochlorella new species described belong to the Augochlorella ephyra group. Augochlorella kelliae sp. nov. is phylogenetically related to Augochlorella una. Augochlorella procliva sp. nov. and Augochlorella mavricera sp. nov. constitute a clade with Augochlorella acarinata. Including the new species, Augochlorella has 19 species and Ceratalictus 11 species. A revised key for species of Augochlorella and Ceratalictus is also presented in the Supplementary Information.