Does this bee exist? On the books it does as (Augochlorella gratiosa). A southern species (according to the books). Yet, while I have identified some (by the books), I am not so sure it exists. The problem for me is that in both the male and female there is only one character that is used to separate them from the what (on the books) is the primary species in the East (A. aurata) and those characters are not black-and-white but rather more a sorta-kinda. In other words these characters grade into one another with no firm character boundary. Overall, this has been a squirrely genus for taxonomists with several revisions (they are pretty after all) but because they purport to debunk each other, taxonomically speaking, it leaves one unsatisfied. I have my own theory which is that A. gratiosa does not exist, but that A. aurata does, but should be split into 2 species (which have non-gratiosish characters). A peak at some pre-existing DNA barcoding hints at such a thing, but a champion must come forth to tackle this more forthrightfully before we will know.
