Andrena (incertae sedis) minor Warncke, 1975

Wood, Thomas J. & Monfared, Alireza, 2022, A revision of the Andrena (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae) fauna of Iran, with the description of 16 new species, European Journal of Taxonomy 843, pp. 1-136 : 128

Andrena (incertae sedis) minor Warncke, 1975 stat. nov.

Andrena (Carandrena) cara minor Warncke, 1975: 90 (♂, Turkey, Diyarbakır).

Andrena (Carandrena) splendula Osytshnjuk, 1984: 5 (♀, Tajikistan, Tigrovaya Balka). Syn. nov.

Material examined

Holotype TURKEY • ♂ (holotype of Andrena cara minor ); Diyarbakır; 15–16 Apr. 1972; K. Warncke leg.; OÖLM .

Other material

TURKEY • 2 ♂♂, 20 ♀♀; Halfeti env.; 3–5 May 1994; M. Halada leg.; OÖLM • 5 ♀♀; Birecik / Urfa; 19 Apr. 1984; K. Warncke leg.; OÖLM .

Remarks

The status of species formerly placed in the subgenus Carandrena (= Notandrena ) is problematic, both at a species level and also because the subgenus is polyphyletic ( Pisanty et al. 2022b). Osytshnjuk (1984, reproduced with additional data in Osytshnjuk et al. 2005) revised Central Asian Carandrena sensu Warncke. In her key, for males with black clypeal markings, she separated two taxa with the gena extended below into either a sharp projection ( A. hieroglyphica ) or a rounded projection ( A. splendula ), and described the latter as a new species. However, this conflicts with the work of Warncke. In his revision of Turkish Andrena, Warncke (1974b, 1975 ) described a subspecies of A. cara with a rounded projection on the male gena. This character was illustrated by Warncke (1975), who treated the form with the sharp projection ( Fig. 164 ) as A. cara cara , and the form with the rounded projection as A. cara minor . He must have treated A. halictoides as the male of A. cara , as no male for this taxon was described by Nurse (1904), though Warncke never published the synonym (e.g., Warncke 1967), which was later made by Gusenleitner & Schwarz (2002).

The problem thus arises that A. cara and its male (described as A. halictoides ) are synonymous with A. hieroglyphica because of this distinct genal spine. Andrena cara minor is therefore not a subspecies of this taxon, but a good species, and the senior synonym of A. splendula . The male genital capsules of A. minor and A. splendula are identical (see illustrations in Osytshnjuk 1984; Osytshnjuk et al. 2005). As Warncke’s collection and hence his types were not available to Osytshnjuk for study, or indeed the types of Nurse in London, this independent duplication of names by workers on the Turkish, Pakistani, and Central Asian faunas occurred, when the taxa themselves are found across similarly arid parts of these regions.

For a wider classification, Andrena hieroglyphica is placed in incertae sedis; the extensive shiny areas that cover most of the scutum are strongly remenicient of A. euzona , which is found outside the Carandrena + Notandrena ( Pisanty et al. 2022b). Andrena minor is also placed as incertae sedis until genetic work can be conducted to fully define the limits of the new, more restricted subgenus Notandrena ( Pisanty et al. 2022b) . More broadly, though A. cara was not the type species of the former subgenus Carandrena (type species: A. aerinifrons Dours, 1873 ; Warncke 1968), the likely reality that A. cara occurs outside of the expanded Notandrena sensu Pisanty et al. 2022b further justifies the decision to synonymise these two subgenera in order to reduce nomenclatural confusion.

Distribution

Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan ( Osytshnjuk et al. 2005, as A. splendula ).

Figures

Figs 157–164. 157–160.Andrena cara Nurse, 1904, ♀ syntype (NHMUK). 157. Label information. 158. Profile. 159. Face. 160. Terga. –161–164. Andrena halictoides Nurse, 1904, ♂, syntype (NHMUK). 161. Label information. 162. Profile. 163. Face. 164. Gena and underside of head, profile view.