Eupavlovskia Popov, 1955

Orr, Michael C., Chesters, Douglas, Williams, Paul H., Wood, Thomas J., Zhou, Qingsong, Bossert, Silas, Sless, Trevor, Warrit, Natapot, Rasmont, Pierre, Ghisbain, Guillaume, Boustani, Mira, Luo, A’rong, Feng, Yuan, Niu, Ze-Qing & Zhu, Chao-Dong, 2024, Integrative taxonomy of a new species of a bumble bee-mimicking brood parasitic bee, Tetralonioidella mimetica (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apidae), investigated through phylogenomics, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 97, pp. 755-780 : 755-780

Eupavlovskia Popov, 1955 stat. rev.

Melecta, sensu Michener 2000 , 2007 (former subgenus).

Diagnosis.

Diagnosis is best made in the male sex, as there are no known characters present in the female sex which allow unambiguous separation from all other melectine genera. Generally robust, moderately large bees, 12.5–16 mm in length. Mesosoma covered with long and dense pubescence, this particularly evident on the dorsal surface where it covers and obscures the pronotal tubercules, scutum, scutellum, and scutellar spines. Marginal cell of forewing short, three times as long as broad, only slightly exceeding the third submarginal cell. Labrum almost square, widest basally, surface slightly concave, anterior border entire, little upturned, with rounded side edges, basal tubercles only weakly projecting but generally large. Hind tibia of the male strongly broadened and expanded at its apex, with strong ventroapical process extending laterally beyond the base of the tibial spurs. Inner hind tibial spur noticeably longer than the outer, gently and variably curved in different directions, appearing weakly undulate. Hind basitarsis of the male strongly to moderately broadened in its apical half to two-thirds. Male antennae without rhinarial pits on their posterior faces (sensu Lieftinck). T 7 of male subtruncate, apex clothed with appressed tomentum. S 7 very slender, with narrow, widely divergent arms and bilobed apex, the lobes fringed with strong bristles; S 8 with well-developed ridges in apical half, apex itself with tufts of long feathery hairs.

Due to the thickly hairy mesosoma, Eupavlovskia can appear superficially quite similar to Tetralonioidella , but they may be separated by a short marginal cell (the most common character state for melectine bees) that only extends slightly beyond the apex of the third submarginal cell, the marginal cell itself being clearly shorter in maximum length than the length of the three submarginal cells combined; it is also shorter than the distance between its apex and the apex of the forewing. In Tetralonioidella the marginal cell is much longer, exceeding the third marginal cell and only slightly shorter than the length of the three submarginal cells combined; it is longer than the distance between its apex and the apex of the forewing. From other Eastern Hemisphere melectine bees, Eupavlovskia is separated by the scutellum, which is not flattened into a plate that overhangs the declivity of the propodeum and by the presence of arolia (with a plate-like scutellum and without arolia in Thyreus ), by the three submarginal cells (two submarginal cells in Sinomelecta Baker, 1997 ), by the length of T 1, which is dorsally shorter than T 2 and the presence of arolia ( T 1 longer than to scarcely shorter than T 2 dorsally and with arolia absent or nearly so in Afromelecta Lieftinck, 1972 and Thyreomelecta ), from all Melecta or currently recognized Melecta subgenera by the combination of the long and dense mesosomal pilosity, the shape of the male legs, the absence of rhinaria on the antennal segments, and the structure of the male S 7–8.

Distribution.

From Spain in the west across the Western Palearctic to Central Asia ( Uzbekistan, Bukhara; Lieftinck 1969). Not present in Africa or the Levant. Composed of two species, Eupavlovskia funeraria ( Smith, 1854) from Spain to the Caucasus and Eupalvovskia obscura (Friese, 1895) from Italy to Uzbekistan.

Comments.

Eupavlovskia , Paracrocisa and Pseudomelecta Radoszkowski, 1865 were separated from Melecta at the generic level by Lieftinck (1969; 1972; 1983), but Michener (2007) considered the given characters insufficiently distinctive and instead considered them as subgenera. We show here that Eupavlovskia is valid and separate from Melecta and its other groups (via molecular work here and prior morphological accounts), and formally return it to the generic level once more; further work is necessary on the rare groups Melecta (Paracrocisa) and Melecta (Pseudomelecta) to ascertain whether they also warrant generic-level treatment.