Trachusa varia ( Olivier, 1789 )

Kasparek, Max, 2020, Revision of the Palaearctic Trachusa interrupta species complex (Apoidea: Anthidiini) with description of four new species, Zootaxa 4728 (1), pp. 1-48 : 39-41

Trachusa varia ( Olivier, 1789) stat. resurr.

( Figs 33 , 39–41 )

Apis rufipes Fabricius (1787: 303) ( Spain) .—Synonymy by Warncke (1980, 1986).

Apis varia Olivier, 1789: 74 .—Replacement name for Apis rufipes F., not Apis rufipes Fabricius, 1781 = Megachile rufipes ( Fabricius, 1781) .

Apis erythropus Fabricius, 1789 .—Replacement name for A. rufipes F. ( Gmelin 1790: 278).

Apis fulvipes Fabricius, 1793 .—Ent. system., Vol. 2: 333 ( Spain).—Without referring to Olivier (1789), Fabricius (1793) repeated his description of A. rufipes from 1787, but now under the name A. fulvipes .

Apis fulvipes Fabricius. —Listed by Fabricius (1804) without referring to Apis rufipes .

Anthophora fulvipes ( Fabricius, 1787) .—Listed by Illiger (1806), who did not examine material of this taxon but refers to Fabricius (1804).

Anthidium rufipes ( Fabricius, 1787) .— Friese (1911).

Anthidium foliivolutor Ferton, 1921 .—Ghazaouet (formerly Nemours), Algeria (male and female).

Anthidium interruptum Fabricius, 1787 (partim).—Synonymy by Warncke (1980) after examination of the type material.

Material examined. Female. HOLOTYPE: Female ( NHMD). Original label ‘ fulvipes’. Additional label in the handwriting of K. Warncke “ Lectotypus Apis fulvipes (Warncke 1977) ”. Head absent as already mentioned by Warncke (1980).— PARALECTOTYPEs: 1♀ ( NHMD). ZUMC 00241548, red label ‘type’ and an additional red label in K. Warncke’s handwriting ‘ Paralectotypus Apis fulvipes (Warncke1977) ’.— 1♂ ( NHMD) ZUMC 00241547. ‘ A. fulvipes D. Vahl’. Red label ‘type’ and an additional red label in K. Warncke’s handwriting ‘ Paralectotypus Apis fulvipes (Warncke 1977) ’. All antennal segments available but badly damaged. Pinned through the head. This is the male of Apis rufipes in Fabricius’ collection.— Further material: SPAIN: 2♀ Melilla [Spanish enclave in Morocco] June 1949, B. Sincan leg., both Paraanthidium foliivolutor Mavromoustakis det. (cMAV).

Taxonomic note. Fabricius (1787) described Apis rufipes based on material collected in Spain. As the name was preoccupied, the following replacement names were suggested: Apis varia by Oliver (1789), Apis erythropus by Gmelin (1790) and Apis fulvipes by Fabricius (1793). Apis varia has priority. This is not the only case known where Johann Christian Fabricius described a homonym ( van der Vecht 1961).

Description. Female: Colour of all maculations red ( Fig. 39 ); band along preoccipital ridge extending from lower gena to middle of vertex, and joining with maculation of paraocular area ( Figs 33 , 39B ); transversal stripe behind ocellus; scutum with anterolateral stripe; scutellum and axillae together with four red spots; all tergal bands uninterrupted; mid-femur with red stripe almost reaching distal end; inner side of hind tibia red ( Fig. 39C ); pronotal lobe red.

Male ( Fig. 41 ): Colour of all maculations yellow to rufous; bands on T1 and T2 interrupted, others uninterrupted ( Fig. 41B ); scutum with narrow, hardly discernible rufous lateral stripe; scutellum and axillae black; rufous stripe of mid-femur reaching middle of femur; inner side of hind tibia black; pronotal lobe rufous.

Differential Diagnosis. Habitus and colouration pattern of the female similar to T. interrupta but all pale maculations red or reddish instead of bright yellow. Additionally, the female is distinguished from all other species of the complex by (1) a red band extending from the genae to the middle of the vertex along the preoccipital ridges; (2) red maculation of the paraocular areas merged with the bands along the preoccipital ridges, and (3) a transverse red band behind the ocelli ( Figs 33 , 39 , 40 , 41 ). The female is further distinguished from all other species of the complex by the uninterrupted band on T1, which has some rufous inclusion medially ( Fig. 39 ).

The maculations of the male are yellow to rufous, hereby paler than in the female and closer to the other males of the complex. The hind femora are black with the distal one-thirds being reddish-yellow. A similar pattern only occurs in T. maghrebensis from Tunisia. Tergal bands are broad, bands on T1–T2 interrupted and band on T3 with a deep notch. A similar pattern has been found in one out of nine specimens of T. maghrebensis .

While the female is well characterised and can easily be identified by both colouration and colour pattern, the single more than 230 years old male is in bad condition and distinguishing morphological characters need to be examined.

Remarks. The description by Ferton (1921) of Anthidium foliivolutor largely matches the description given here. He particularly described the colour of the male maculae as yellow, and those of the female as red, thus confirming the colour dimorphism. The male in Felton’s (1921) material has the band on T1–T3 interrupted, whereas they are interrupted in the male in Fabricius’ collection only on T1–T2.

Given the great age of Fabricius’ type material (over 230 years old), it was considered whether colouration might have changed, possibly as a consequence of treatment e.g. with arsenic. While some change cannot be ruled out, the colour tone (red, ochreous, yellow) is well correlated with the colour design and the same unique combination of colour and colour design was found in material collected in the same region approximately 150 years later.

Distribution. Spain and North Africa. Fabricius (1787, 1793, 1804) gives Spain as the location where the type material was collected by Prof. Martin Vahl (1749–1804), who was a botanist who collected in Spain and northern Africa (e.g. Tunis). Information on the exact collecting site or on the travel itinerary was not available but it cannot be ruled out that the material actually came from northern Africa and not from Spain. Further material is available from Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, and the material of Ferton (1921) from Ghazaouet (formerly Nemours) in West Algeria can apparently also be attributed to this species.

Figures

FIGURE 33. Comparison of the head colour patterns in the female of the Trachusa interrupta species complex. The light pattern over black ground colour is red or reddish in T. varia and yellow in all other species. The dark colour on figure shows the light colour on the bee.

FIGURE 39. Trachusa varia. Female paralectotype from the Fabricius collection. A–B. Head in frontal view and at an angle from above; C–D. habitus in dorsal and lateral views.

FIGURE 40. Trachusa varia. Female from Melilla, the Spanish enclave in Morocco, in the collection Mavromoustakis.

FIGURE 41. Trachusa varia. Male. Paralectotype of Apis fulvipes from the Fabricius collection. A. Habitus in lateral view; B. metasoma in dorsal view; C. head in frontal view; D. apical terga with genitalia.