Rhopalomelissa Alfken, 1926: 267

Falswal, Jyoti, Dey, Debjani & Kumar, Sarita, 2023, First record of Lipotriches (Rhopalomelissa) burmica from India along with a checklist of species from India (Hymenoptera: Halictidae, Nomiinae), Fragmenta entomologica 55 (2), pp. 171-176 : 172-176

Rhopalomelissa Alfken, 1926: 267

Nomia (Epinomia) Alfken, 1939: 113

Alfkenomia Hirashima, 1956: 33

Rhopalomelissa (Lepidorhopalomelissa) Wu, 1985: 58 Rhopalomelissa (Trichorhopalomelissa) Wu, 1985: 58 Rhopalomelissa (Tropirhopalomelissa) Wu, 1985: 58 Type species: Lipotriches abdominalis Gerstaecker, 1857 (= Sphecodes cribrosa Spinola, 1843 ), by original designation.

Genus Lipotriches Gerstaecker, 1858

Diagnosis. Both males and females have pronotum with a carina at the edge. In females, the basitibial plate of the posterior tibiae is not carinated completely and the hind tibial spur is without subapical tooth or is unmodified.

Redescription.

Lipotriches (Rhopalomelissa) burmica ( Cockerell, 1920) Female: (Figs 1-6).

Head. Shiny dorsally, slightly broader than long; paraocular area partially covered with setae; antenna 12- segmented; frons bare, densely punctate; clypeus moderately punctate, covered with pubescence (Fig. 3); eyes shiny without hairs.

Mesosoma: Scutum, scutellum and metanotum with shiny surface reflections; pronotal carina at edge; scutum and scutellum shiny with strong punctuations (Fig. 4), margin covered with yellow colour felting; metanotum simple, without modifications; fore wing with three sub-marginal cells, 3rd sub-marginal cell longer than 1 st sub-marginal cell, nearly 2.0x as long as 2nd sub-marginal cell; tegula normal, finely punctate anteriorly; mesoscutum closely punctate; propodeal area triangle-shaped, smooth; lateral sides of propodeum punctate; hind femur and hind tibia simple or without modifications; basitibial plate incomplete and partially carinated; scopa well developed; hamuli 10 in number.

Metasoma. Dense hair patch on the lateral side of T1 apically; apical margin of T2-T4 opaque; metasoma elongate, oval-shaped (Fig. 6); T1 almost smooth, sparsely punctate, apical margin not depressed; T2 densely punctate, T3 & T4 strongly punctate compared to T2, tergum II-V with apical sparse bristles, T2 with laterally sparse setae, T3-T5 covered with sparse, elongate pubescence. The dorsal surface of T2 to T5 is rough compared to T1.

Pubescence and Coloration. Dark brown to black, mesosoma black, metasomal terga dark brown distinctly; golden setae on clypeus, paraocular area, frons and supraclypeal area (Fig. 3); mandible, pterostigma dark brown; flagellum ventrally dark brown, F10 apricot coloured; wing veins, basitarsus brown; tegula light brown; wing transparent; body hairs golden or dull white; eyes dark brown in colour. Pronotum, scutum margins, metanotum with yellow colour felting; propodeum with sparse golden hair; apical margins of tergites opaque; T1 with golden hair laterally, T2-T5 with sparse dull golden hair setae on apical margin (Fig. 6); legs brown; basitarsus light brown or yellowish orange in color.

Measurement. BL= 4.9 mm, HL= 0.86 mm, HW= 1.16 mm, EL= 0.67 mm, IOD= 0.15 mm, WL= 3.29 mm.

Material Examined: ♀. INDIA: Haryana: Panchkula , 30 Sep 2021, 30.6942° N, 76.8606° E .

Floral association: Flannel weed.

Male: (Figs 7-13)

Head. Shiny dorsally, little broader than long; paraocular area partially covered with setae; antenna 13 segmented;

frons, clypeus moderately punctuate and completely covered with pubescence (Fig. 9); eyes shiny without hairs.

Mesosoma. Scutum, scutellum and metanotum covered with felting; pronotum carinated at edge; scutum and scutellum moderately punctuate; metanotum simple, without modifications; three sub-marginal cells present in the fore wing, 3rd sub-marginal cell longer than 1 st sub-marginal cell, nearly 2x as long as 2nd sub-marginal cell; tegulae normal, finely punctate anteriorly; mesoscutum closely punctured (Fig. 7); propodeal area triangle-shaped, smooth; lateral sides of propodeum punctured; hind femur and tibia unmodified; Hamuli 10 in number.

Metasoma. Apical lateral sides of T 1with a very light hair patch; apical margin T 2- T 4 opaque; metasoma elongate; T 1 moderately punctuate, apical margin not depressed; T 2 densely punctuate, T 3 & T 4 strongly punctuate compared to T 2, T 2 to T 5 with apical sparse bristles, T 3- T 5 covered with pubescence; cup-shaped structure at sternite 4 (Fig. 10); sternite 5 has two pointed structures.

Genitalia. Gonostyles narrow and rounded apically with a pair of short hooked like structure (Fig. 11- 12), inner margin with elongate setae (Fig. 13); penis valve acuminates apically, indented inner side.

Pubescence. Same as female. Femur dark brown; tibia yellow in colour with a dark brown coloured patch on ventral side; basitarsus light brown or yellowish orange in colour.

Measurement. BL= 4.3 mm, HL= 0.86 mm, HW= 1.09 mm, EL= 0.70 mm, IOD= 0.15 mm, WL= 2.95 mm.

Material Examined: ♂. INDIA: Haryana: Panchkula , 30 Sep 2021, 30.6942° N, 76.8606° E .

Floral association: Flannel weed.

Note: Male with a characteristic cup-shaped structure at the center of Sternite 4 (Fig. 10). Sternite 5 has two pointed structures. The female is closely related to L. pulchriventris but differs from it by the following: T 1 sparsely punctuated (Fig. 5) and vertex shorter as compared to L. pulchriventris .

Species distribution: India: Haryana, Burma, China, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand.

Table 1 –

Acknowledgements – The authors thank Director, ICAR−Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi- 110012 and Head, Division of Entomology for providing facilities for the study. Thanks also to two anonymous reviewers who helped improve the quality of this article.

Conflict of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by authors.