Apis, Cockerell, 1926, 1758

Leijs, Remko, Dorey, James & Hogendoorn, Katja, 2020, The genus Amegilla (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Anthophorini) in Australia: a revision of the subgenus Asaropoda, ZooKeys 908, pp. 45-122 : 45

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.908.47375
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:ADB4118F-5140-4AD1-99C0-5B903E992669
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/37DB8DEF-3065-56A5-A35F-AA6BDCFBB7C1
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Apis
status

Treatment

Subgenus Asaropoda Cockerell, 1926

Asaropoda Cockerell, 1926: 216.

Type.

Saropoda bombiformis Smith, 1854 (original designation).

Diagnosis.

The diagnosis for this subgenus as given by Brooks (1988) was largely based on the type species of the subgenus, A. bombiformis , but is revised to include species that he did not examine at the time, as well as the new species discovered here. The inclusion of these species extends the morphological variety in this subgenus.

In the following text, the main subgeneric diagnostic characters are in bold: body length 12-24 mm; forewing length 8-18 mm; hairs absent in third submarginal cell and second medial cell; hairs absent in first medial cell with the exception of A. albiclypeata and A. youngi which have a few short hairs, and A. nitidiventris which has more than ten hairs; hairs absent in the second submarginal cell with the exception of A. albiceps , A. aurantia , A. frogatti , and A. rhodoscymna which have less than ten hairs, and A. crenata , A. preissi , and A. albiclypeata which have 10-20 hairs; the pubescence of the majority of the species is orange, brown or grey, occasionally with black hairs anteriorly on T2 or following segments; however, there are two species groups with an aberrant pattern colouration of pubescence: the houstoni -group ( A. houstoni , A. epaphrodita , A. xylocopoides ), which has an orange to yellow mesosomal pubescence, and predominantly black metasomal pubescence, and the youngi -group ( A. nitidiventris and A. youngi ), which has brown mesosomal and black metasomal pubescence, with white to orange hairbands on the posterior margins. Colour dimorphism between the sexes is weak, apart from in A. dawsoni , where females have white to grey, and males brown mesosomal pubescence; maxiliary palpus with five segments; apical margins of male metasomal sterna modified, with emarginations that vary in size and depth and are diagnostic at the species level; S4 (and occasionally S3) bent medially; the shape and size of the thick brush of stiff setae on S4 of males is diagnostic at the species level; posterior margins of S5 and S6 emarginate medially of which its width, depth, size and shape is diagnostic at the species level; S6 medially with one or two patches of hair; S7 usually with slender neck, with the exception of A. scoparia and A. frogatti where the neck is robust; S7 apical margin of head among species variable in shape; S8 apically narrowed and usually emarginate; apex of gonocoxite of male bearing one or two gonostyli of which number, size and shape are diagnostic at the species level; gonostyli with setae of variable length and densities; penis valves laterally rounded, drawn into rounded lobes, or with angular lobes; S6 of females medially with raised area which varies from inconspicuous roughened, broadly parabolic with well-defined rim, slender spine, to almost a pygidium like structure.