Pachyanthidium (Pachyanthidium) salamense (Friese) Friese, 2017

Eardley, Connal & Griswold, Terry, 2017, Taxonomic revision of the Afrotropical species of Pachyanthidium Friese (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae: Anthidiini), Zootaxa 4237 (3), pp. 401-453 : 433-435

Pachyanthidium (Pachyanthidium) salamense (Friese) comb. nov.

( Figs 21–22 )

Anthidium cordatum var. salamense Friese, 1915: 295 , male holotype ( ZMHB) Tanzania. Pasteels 1984: 139 –147, syn. P. paulinieri .

Anthidium cordatum var. salamense Friese, 1931: 39 , male and female syntypes (depository unknown) Tanzania. Syn. nov.

Diagnosis. The combination of eyes naked, absent arolia and black and yellow metasoma distinguishes P. salamens e from all Pachyanthidium except other members of the cordatum species-group. Males can be distinguished from others in its species group by the combination of dorsum of mesosoma rimmed laterally and posteriorly by a white band and five similar mandibular teeth. T7 with broad, apically truncate posteromedian projection that is longer than the narrow lateral spines, truncate distally and two–thirds as wide as the concavity between it and the lateral spines ( Fig. 21 ). No females were available for study.

Description. FEMALE. Material not seen.

MALE. Lengths not recorded. Head and mesosoma black with yellow maculations on: clypeus, lower paraocular area, narrow outer margin of upper paraocular area, medioventral spot on supraclypeus, spot on frons below median ocellus, posterior margin of vertex, gena with stripe, mandible except teeth, lateral margin of scutum, entire axilla, medially interrupted subapical cross-band on scutellum, tegula spot, mesepisternum behind omaulus, legs except orange fore and mid femora dorsally, entire hind femur, metasoma except anterior half of mesal region of T1 black; apical translucent margins on scutellum (colourless). Structure ( Fig. 21 ). Preoccipital ridge weakly lamellate; eye naked; clypeus with ventral edge slightly convex, tuberculate; antennal flagellum 0.9x eye length, 3.1x scape length; mandible with 5 similar, pointed teeth; pronotal lobe with anterior margin slightly rounded, not transverse; omaulus lamellate; forebasitarsus sparsely pubescent, with moderately long posterior fringe; forebasitarsus length 0.6x foretibia length, 0.3x its width, not distinctly extended anterodistally; hind basitarsus wide, length 2.5x width; arolia absent; T1–T4 without lateral spines or swelling; T5 with slight posterolateral swelling; T 6 in one plane, extended posteromedially, ventrolateral spine, posterolateral and posteromedian tubercles, latter slightly emarginate; T7 with narrow posterolateral spine (narrower than length), acutely pointed median spine, concavity between median and lateral spines twice width of median spine; terminalia not studied.

Distribution. This species is only known from Tanzania and Kenya ( Fig. 22 ).

Material examined. Type material. Male holotype of Anthidium cordatum var. salamense : ‘D.esSalaam O.- Africa, Anthidium cordatum v. salamense ♀ Fr. 1914 Friese det.’, ‘Type’ [red label], ‘ Pachyanthidium salamense Fr. J. Pasteels det., 1963’, ‘Holo Typus’ [pink label], ZMHB.

Additional material. Kenya. Rift Valley Province, ca. 5 km N Nananga , 1999. vi.21, W. J. Pulawski J. S. Schweikert (1♂ BBSL) ; Rift Valley Province , 2.2 km E Margarit, Perkerra Irrigation Scheme, 2012. x.10, T. Griswold W. Tiren, Crotalaria sp. (1♂ BBSL) .

Discussion. Pasteels (1984) does not include P. salamense Friese, 1915 , in his revision, referring rather to the junior primary homonym P. salamense Friese, 1931 . There is considerable confusion regarding the identity of type material for these two names. A specimen that was labelled as type material, but that is not a type, is known to exist in MHUB ( Rasmussen & Ascher, 2008). Friese (1915) stated in the original description of Anthidium cordatum var. salamense that the holotype was a female. The specimen labelled as the holotype in ZMHB, however, is a male. This specimen, except for the gender, resembles Friese’s (1915) description of P. salamense , is from the type locality and has the red “ Type ” label frequently used by Friese for the true type ( Rasmussen & Ascher, 2008). It seems likely that Friese (1915) made an error in recording the gender of the holotype . This specimen is therefore assumed to be the holotype of P. salamense . Pasteels examined this specimen, as indicated by a label attached to the specimen, and he ( Pasteels, 1984) synonymised P. salamense with P. paulinieri . Pachyanthidium salamense has a five-toothed mandible, fairly extensive diffuse yellow maculation on the metasoma and a truncate posteromedian spine on the male T7. Pachyanthidium paulinieri similarly has a five-toothed mandible, but the maculae on the male metasoma are orangish, T1 lacks the quadrate black patch and the posteromedian spine on the male T7 is obtusely pointed. Pachyanthidium salamense is therefore considered to be a distinct species. Anthidium cordatum var. salamense “ n. var. ” Friese, 1931:39 (a primary junior homonym) from Zanzibar is here viewed as a synonym. We have been unable to locate the type but the description is clearly of a Pachyanthidium s. str. with the quadrate black mark on T1 that appears to be distinctive to P. salamense and there is nothing otherwise in the description that is clearly contrary to this assignment.

Figures

FIGURE 21. Male of Pachyanthidium salamense (Friese). a – b. Habitus. c. Face. d. T 6 – T 7.

FIGURE 22. Pachyanthidium salamense (Friese) (●) and Pachyanthidium micheneri Pasteels (*), known distribution.