Andrena (Lepidandrena) baetica Wood, 2020

Wood, Thomas James, Cross, Ian & Baldock, David W., 2020, Updates to the bee fauna of Portugal with the description of three new Iberian Andrena species (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila), Zootaxa 4790 (2), pp. 201-228 : 202-204

Andrena (Lepidandrena) baetica Wood spec. nov.

Holotype: PORTUGAL: Alto Alentejo, Portalegre, Vaiamonte , 1–30.iv.2012, pan trap, 1♀, leg. A. van Harten. Deposited in the OÖLM.

Paratypes: SPAIN: Cadiz, Hozgarganta-Tal, E Puerto d. Galiz , 500 m, 12.iv.1985, 1♀, leg. W. Schacht, OÖLM ; Sierra Pozo, Mnt. Palomas , 1450 m, 11.vi.2003, 1♀, leg. M. Kafka, OÖLM ; Sierra Pozo, 1800 m, Puento Liano , 12.vi.2003, 5♀, leg. M. Kafka, OÖLM ; PORTUGAL: Alto Alentejo, Portalegre, Vaiamonte , 1–30.iv.2012, pan trap, 1♀, leg. A. van Harten ; Alto Alentejo, Ribeira de Abrilongo , 2.v.2019, 2♀, leg. A. Gonçalves, F. Barros, R . Félix , R . Costa, white pan trap; Baixo Alentejo, Ebio Noudar , 11.iv.2019, 1♀, leg. A. Soares, F. Barros, A. Gonçalves, R . Félix .

Paratypes are deposited in the OÖLM, the TAGIS collection, Avis (Portalegre District, Portugal), with two retained in the personal collection of T. J. Wood .

Diagnosis: This species belongs to the subgenus Lepidandrena Hedicke that is characterised in the female by the combination a row of thorn-like projections on the inner side of the hind femur, the femur also being carinate and bearing a fringe of dense, short bristles, as well as plumose scopal hairs on the tibia, and densely punctate terga. Nine species of Lepidandrena are currently known from Western Europe and the Western Mediterranean ( A. curvungula Thompson, 1870 ; A. dorsalis Brullé, 1832 ; A. florivaga Eversmann, 1852 ; A. mocsaryi Schmiedeknecht, 1883 ; A. pandellei Pérez, 1895 ; A. paucisquama Noskiewicz, 1924 ; A. rufizona Imhoff, 1834 ; A. sardoa Lepeletier, 1841 ; and A. tuberculifera Pérez, 1895 ).

Andrena baetica has uniformly dark tergal integument ( Figure 6 , at least partly red in A. rufizona , A. sardoa , and A. tuberculifera ; excluded from the following comparisons), dense, tomentose, squamous hairs on the scutum, scutellum, and metanotum ( Figures 4–5 , simple hairs in A. florivaga and A. mocsaryi ), a shagreened galea (smooth in A. curvungula , A. pandellei , and A. paucisquama ), a dull and shagreened clypeus with an impunctate central line ( Figure 3 , smooth and shiny in A. curvungula , A. florivaga , A. pandellei , and A. paucisquama , shagreened but without an impunctate central line in A. dorsalis ), and tarsi 2 and 3 and tibia 3 are orange (dark in A. curvungula , A. dorsalis , A. pandellei , and A. paucisquama ).

For these characters, A. baetica is therefore closest to A. mocsaryi that is known from eastern and south-eastern Europe. However, A. mocsaryi has squamous hairs limited to the very edges of the metanotum and the scutellum, and the hairs of the scutum are simple, allowing the dense and clear punctation below to be seen clearly. Therefore, in profile the vast majority of the hairs of the scutum are not squamous ( Figure 1 ). The structure of the labrum also differs: in A. mocsaryi the labral process is apically emarginate, forming two points, whereas in A. baetica it is truncate with a straight fore margin. Altogether, these characters therefore combine to make A. baetica unique.

Description: Female: Body length 10 mm ( Figure 4 ). Head: Head 1.2 times wider than long ( Figure 3 ). Clypeus weakly domed, broadly flattened in the central part, shagreened, punctures shallow but clear, separated by a distance of 1–1.5 puncture diameters over majority of the clypeus except at margins where punctures density increases to the point of almost touching, absent from centre where a clear longitudinal impunctate line is formed. Clypeal surface completely shagreened and dull, not shining. Process of labrum trapezoidal, twice as broad basally as long, apical margin weakly emarginate. Pubescence brown to light brown with the exception of the frons and the paraocular area which include a mixture of black hairs that are most visible in profile. Fovea not noticeably widened or narrowed, occupying half of paraocular area. Distance between inner margin of fovea and compound eye equivalent to distance between lateral ocellus and inner margin of the fovea. Mesosoma: Punctures of scutum and scutellum dense, separated by much less than the diameter of a puncture ( Figure 5 ). Scutum, scutellum, and metanotum with short, squamous, light brown hairs, these hairs almost uniformly short, with only 20–30 individual longer hairs projecting in centre of the scutum when viewed in profile. Mesepisternum shagreened without apparent punctures, with long yellow-brown simple hairs. Lateral faces of propodeum with long simple hairs forming part of propodeal pollen basket. Legs generally with orangey pubescence, floccus whitish, tibial scopa light orange. Integument of legs dark except orange tarsi 2+3 and tibia 3 ( Figure 4 ). Metasoma: Terga uniformly dark with only apexes of margins lightened and slightly translucent ( Figure 6 ). Terga deeply and uniformly punctured over entire surface, punctures separated by 1 puncture diameter at most, often less. T2–4 with dense white hairbands, that on T2 widely broken, those on T3+4 complete. Terminal fringe of T5 orange. Pygidial plate with slightly raised margin, and slightly raised centre caused by strong cluster of punctures with raised edges, therefore appearing domed.

Male: Unknown.

Distribution: South-eastern Portugal and two mountainous areas of Andalucía in southern Spain.

Floral preferences: The specimen collected from Puerto de Galiz had the scopa full of large, semi-cylindrical pollen grains. Pollen analysis showed that this consisted of 60 μm long grains of Ornithogalum - type ( Asparagaceae , Figure 2 ). If this floral preference is consistent, it stands in contrast to the other dark coloured western Lepidandrena species with short scutal hairs, A. curvungula , A. pandellei , and A. paucisquama which are all narrow oligoleges of Campanula ( Campanulaceae, Westrich 1989 ). In line with the morphological evidence, the use of Asparagaceae pollen also places A. baetica close to A. mocsaryi which is a narrow oligolege of Ornithogalum ( Westrich 2010) . The identity of the pollen collected by A. baetica must be confirmed through field observations, but it is possible that it is also narrowly oligolectic on Ornithogalum like its sister species. Interestingly, the specimens collected from the Sierra Pozo (11.vi.2013 and 12.vi.2003) were collected with Andrena saxonica Stoeckhert (see records in Dardon et al. 2014), an oligolege of Ornithogalum ( Westrich 2010) .

Discussion: Andrena mocsaryi is distributed from Turkey in the east to the Czech Republic in the north and to Croatia and southern Italy in the west ( Gusenleitner & Schwarz 2002). The nearest records of A. mocsaryi from southern Italy are approximately 1,700 kilometres away from the records of A. baetica in southern Spain. This remarkable disjunct distribution mirrors the situation in the Colletes albomaculatus -group. The recently described C. jansmiti Kuhlmann was found in southern Spain approximately 2,000 km from the western range edge of C. punctatus Mocsary , its nearest relative, which is found in eastern Austria and the Balkan Peninsula ( Kuhlmann & Smit 2018). The Puerto de Galiz site for A. baetica is less than 50 km from the locus typicus of C. jansmiti . The presence of two species with distributional ranges seemingly restricted to southern Iberia that are morphologically close to more widespread species in eastern Europe and the eastern Mediterranean with presumably a very similar ecological niche ( Kuhlmann & Smit 2018) suggests that the taxa may have been separated only recently, perhaps as species were forced into the Iberian, Italian, and Balkan glacial refugia during the last Glacial Maximum (Hewitt 1999).

Etymology: After conquering Iberia, the Romans divided it into three provinces with Hispania Baetica corresponding roughly to present day Andalucía. As the current species is so far only known from southern Iberia, the name baetica was chosen to emphasise this distribution. Hopefully this name will prove less transient than previous incarnations, with Osmia baetica Spinola, 1843 now considered a junior synonym of Osmia rutila Erichson, 1835 and Megachile baetica Gerstäcker, 1869 which may just be a form of Megachile parietina Geoffroy, 1785 (C. Praz in litt).

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. 1. Andrena mocsaryi Schmiedeknecht at flowers of Ornithogalum (photo credit Bernhard Jacobi). 2. Pollen grains (Asparagaceae) removed from the scopa of Andrena baetica spec. nov. Each of the smallest subdivisions represent 2.5 μm (total scale length = 250 μm). Andrena baetica, 3. female head, 4. female scutum, 5. female habitus, 6. female metasoma.