Apis meliponoides Buttel­Reepen, 1906: 158

ENGEL, MICHAEL S., 2001, A Monograph Of The Baltic Amber Bees And Evolution Of The Apoidea (Hymenoptera), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2001 (259), pp. 1-1 : 1-

Apis meliponoides Buttel­Reepen, 1906: 158 . Electrapis meliponoides (Buttel­Reepen) ; Cock­

erell, 1908b: 326. Cockerell, 1909b: 9. Zeuner

and Manning, 1976: 229.

DIAGNOSIS: Electrapis meliponoides is distinctive among all known Electrapis species for the shortened pterostigma. The species is large like E. tornquisti but lacks the medioapical patches of setae on the labrum.

DESCRIPTION: Female. Total body length 12.60 mm; forewing length 8.88 mm. Head longer than wide (length 2.85 mm, upper width 2.40 mm: lower width not preserved owing to damage to lower right of head). Intertegular distance 3.40 mm. Basal vein basad cu­a by vein width, straight; second abscissa Rs arched; 1rs­m distad 1m­cu by five times vein width; 2rs­m distad 2m­cu by four times vein width; first submarginal cell short­ er than combined lengths of second and third submarginal cells; posterior border of second submarginal cell 1.25 times length of anterior border; posterior border of third submarginal cell twice as long as anterior border, length of anterior border slightly less than anterior border of second submarginal cell; pterostigma short, as long as wide, margin inside marginal cell slightly concave; marginal cell bending away from wing apex by nearly twice pterostigma width, feebly appendiculate; hind wing with 13 distal hamuli arranged in a single, evenly spaced series; first abscissa M 4.5 times as long as rs­m.

Preserved portion of facial integument obscured by fine layer of Schimmel; where evident, appearing imbricate. Mesosoma and metasoma, where evident, finely imbricate.

Color dark brown without maculations. Wing membrane hyaline; veins dark brown.

Pubescence white. Mandible with a few, very short, widely scattered, simple setae except lower margin with long, simple, scat­ tered setae. Labrum with scattered, erect, long, simple setae. Clypeus and supraclypeal area with scattered, moderate­length, simple setae, such setae more numerous on face and some with a few minute branches; those setae of face fairly dense and plumose. Setae on vertex quite long and simple. Genal setae as described for vertex except much shorter. Mesoscutum with dense, long, erect, plumose setae partially obscuring integument. Tegula with dense, long, appressed, plumose setae directed laterally. Scutellar setae as described for mesoscutum except along posterior third exceedingly long (longer than scutellum) and plumose. Pleural pubescence long, dense, and plumose. Setae of legs long, numerous and stiff on tibiae and tarsi; corbicula with long setae along lateral margins, setae of anterior margin simple, posterior margin minutely plumose; inner surface of metatibia entirely covered by keirotrichiae; stiff, elongate, scattered setae on lateral margins of metabasitarsus, outer surface with sparse, shorter, simple setae, inner surface with dense field of setae not arranged into rows. Metasomal terga with scattered, short, plumose setae, apparently with dense, apical bands on T2–5; sterna with scattered, long, erect or suberect, minutely plumose setae.

MATERIAL: One specimen. Neotype (here designated). Female, worker caste, B­JH 97 ( AMNH) labeled: ‘‘Baltic amber: Eocene, Kaliningrad, Yantarny’’ // ‘‘ Neotype, Apis meliponoides Buttel­Reepen , desig. M. S. Engel’’ // ‘‘ Electrapis meliponoides (Buttel­ Reepen), det. M. S. Engel’’.