Andrena wrisleyi Salt, 1931: 141

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-

Andrena wrisleyi Salt, 1931: 141 .

COMMENTS: The description and illustrations of this specimen are adequate to determine that the species was not an Andrena or even an andrenid. It is possible that the species was a melittid of some sort that has not subsequently been discovered among newer material. Although the melittid hypothesis is perhaps the best possibility, the original description and particularly Salt’s figure of the wing venation are enigmatically suggestive of an electrapine. Although the figure of the hind tibia does not show a corbicula, the description provided of the hind leg by Salt does not match his figure and is somewhat suggestive: ‘‘... tibiae triangular, much widened apically,... ’’ (Salt, 1931: 142). The wing venation is quite similar to species of both Electrapis and Protobombus (if an electrapine, Andrena wrisleyi would fall close to, or in, Electrapis owing to the elongate metabasitarsus). It seems hard to imagine but it is possible that Salt’s specimen was actually an unknown corbiculate apine in the Electrapini ! The holotype was deposited in the illfated University of Königsberg and was not subsequently located in any other institution. None of the bees before me can be readily associated with Salt’s ‘‘ Andrena ’’ and so I have not designated a neotype. The name must be relegated to incertae sedis.