Augochlorodes vachali, Gonçalves & Melo, 2008

Gonçalves, Rodrigo B. & Melo, Gabriel A. R., 2008, New species of the bee genus Augochlorodes Moure (Hymenoptera, Apidae s. l., Halictinae), Journal of Natural History 42 (19 - 20), pp. 1385-1403 : 1399-1401

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00222930802105148
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/03D51372-FFC9-762E-FE73-8617B3BC8CA5
treatment provided by	Carolina
scientific name	Augochlorodes vachali
status	sp. nov.

Treatment

Augochlorodes vachali new species

( Figures 1F View Figure 1 and 2D View Figure 2 )

Diagnosis and comments

Augochlorodes vachali sp. nov. is similar to A. clementis and A. incomitatus in its small body length and the strongly microreticulated mesoscutum. The punctation of parocular area and the body’s bluish reflections distinguish it from these two species. It worth mentioning that the holotype carries several acari on the basis of T1, a feature not observed in other examined specimens of this species and in the genus. Many augochlorines are observed with associated mites on various body regions; among extant species, morphological specialization for carrying acari are known only in females of Thectochlora ( Gonçalves and Melo 2006) View in CoL .

Description of female holotype

Measurements. Mhw: 1.50; mhl: 1.46; den: 1.10; iem: 0.75; cl: 0.35; c–a: 0.32; c–o: 0.81; ml: 0.99; abl: 5.

Head. Basal elevation of labrum circular; clypeus punctation irregularly spaced; punctures on supraclypeal area mostly restricted to the lateral surfaces, with a few punctures occupying the mid-portion, entire surface densely microreticulated; parocular area without a well-defined darkened stripe, lower portion densely punctured and microreticulated; frons punctation deep and coarse.

Mesoscutum. Longitudinal sulcus well defined; anterior border rounded; decumbent pubescence inconspicuous; punctures fine but of variable diameter; surface microreticulated and with a dull luster.

Scutellum . Erect setae densely branched.

Mesepisternum. Entirely covered with erect, plumose pubescence.

Metanotum. Covered with very long and plumose setae.

Metapostnotum. Dorsal portion about twice as long metanotum; surface strongly microreticulated; longitudinal carinae relatively weak and extending over the anterior one-third of its dorsal length.

Propodeum. Lateral surface entirely microreticulated; and pubescence long and simple.

Metasoma. Posterior margin of S2–S3 with fine and recurved setae, posterior margin of S4–S5 with thick and simple setae.

Body colour. Bright metallic green, with bluish reflections; legs brown.

Type material

Holotype female ( DZUP): BRAZIL, Paraná, ‘ DZUP \025503’ ‘ Brasil, Paraná, Campina \ Grande do Sul , Pico \ Caratuva , 100 [1000]- 1480 m,\25 ° 149S 48 ° 509W,\ 17.ii.2007, G. A. R. Melo,\F. v[V]ivallo’ . Paratypes. Paraná: one female ( DZUP), ‘ DZUP \025504’ ‘ Alto Amparo PR \BR II 65 Moure\Mitchell, Touro’. Santa Catarina: one female ( DZUP), ‘ DZUP \164367’ ‘ Data: 22/11/2002 \ Local: Garuva /SC\ Coletor: MOUGA, D.’ ‘Q-116’; three females (UNIVILLE), one ‘ Data: 03/10/2003 \ Local: Garuva /SC\ Coletor: MOUGA, D.’ ‘Q-119’, one with same data except ‘ 19/01/2002 ’ ‘Q-118’, and one with same data except ‘ 24/11/2002 ’ ‘Q117 ’. São Paulo: one female ( MZUSP): ‘ Brasil, SP, São José do Barreiro \ Campo de Altitude, Serra da Bocaina \ 20 XII 1999 \Coletor: Leandro Freitas n ° 407 ’.

Etymology

Named in honour of the French entomologist Joseph Vachal, for his great contribution to the taxonomy and classification of halictine bees.

Discriminant function analysis

The individual values for the measurements taken from 38 studied specimens are shown on Table 1 with observed and predicted classification after DFA. Discriminant analysis indicated significant differences among groups (Wilks’ Lambda50.001; F 28,98520.025; P,0.0000). The first three axes of the discriminant function analysis accounted for 97.86% of the total variance.

Table 2 shows three significance tests for each variable, the Wilks’ Lambda value is inversely proportional to the variable contribution to the discriminant function and the F-remove shows which variables are significant. According to these tests the mhl and mhw were the most significant variables wherease the significance level showed that cl and c–o were non-significant.

Table 3 stresses the correlations between the variables and the three discriminant scores or dimensions. The correlations were higher for head length (MHL) in the first score, head width (mhw) in the second and distance between clypeus and antennal alveolus (c–a) in the third score. All the specimens were classified accordingly to the observed grouping ( Table 1).

The scatterplots of discriminant scores 1×2 and 1×3 are presented as Figures 3 View Figure 3 and 4 View Figure 4 , respectively. Both scatterplots help to discriminate between the observed groups, except for some overlap observed on Figure 3 View Figure 3 involving scores 1×2 (influenced by mhl and mhw). The third score helps to discriminate A. clementis from the other small species. This score is influenced by the length of the supraclypeal (c–a, see Table 3), a feature already noted as diagnostic on the Comments section for A. clementis . The DFA reinforces the delimitation of species based on qualitative features. In the case of A. clementis and A. vachali , their differences (summarized in the identification key) are subtle and difficult to observe; however these two species occupy distinct positions in the scatterplots and undoubtedly should be treated as separate species.