[2] The cloaked bee is relatively large, with its stout body measuring 9 to 11 mm in length.

Its body is mostly black with distinctive white markings on its face and thorax.

[2] All documented sightings of the cloaked bee originate from subtropical and tropical forests in northeast Australia.

Specimens were first collected in the Atherton Tablelands, Mackay, and Kuranda, though the exact locations were "imprecise.

"[2][3] Hylaeus lactiferus was first described by Theodore Dru Alison Cockerell in 1910 and given the common name "Cloaked bee.