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Resin bees of the anthidiine genus Trachusa: Identification, taxonomy, distribution and biology of the Old World species
Abstract
Bees belonging to the genus Trachusa are relatively large, robust species. Females are important pollinators which have a specialised pollen-carrying structure on the underside of the abdomen. Trachusa bees are solitary although usually construct their nests in aggregations. For those species whose breeding biology is known, nest cells are made from resin and pieces of green leaves. Trachusa has a world-wide distribution. This publication is the first comprehensive overview and guide to the 25 Trachusa species found in Europe, Africa and Asia. It provides descriptions of all species and gives separate identification keys to females and males. All species are illustrated, with altogether 205 colour micro photographs and over 50 line drawings showing morphological details. The species accounts are further supported by distribution maps and graphs depicting seasonal occurrences. This publication hereby summarises our knowledge and attempts to stimulate further research in the taxonomy, biology and ecology of this still little-known group of insects.
... The genus Trachusa Panzer 1804, composed of robust and medium-sized species, belongs to the family Megachilidae (tribe Anthidiini), and contains 42 species in the Old World (Kasparek, 2018a;2018b, 2019, 2020Niu et al., 2019) including the new species described in this paper; in a molecular analysis, Litman et al. (2016) found that the genus Trachusa forms a strongly supported monophyletic clade, sister to the rest of Anthidiini. Few morphological characters allow to clearly separate the genus Trachusa from the other genera of the Anthidiini tribe and this could lead to the exclusion of some species previously assigned to the genus (Kasparek, 2017). As for Indomalayan Realm, Kasparek (2017) and Niu et al. (2019) listed 14 species assigned to 3 subgenera: Metatrachusa Pasteels 1969; Orthanthidium Mavromoustakis 1953; Paraanthidium Friese 1898. ...
... Few morphological characters allow to clearly separate the genus Trachusa from the other genera of the Anthidiini tribe and this could lead to the exclusion of some species previously assigned to the genus (Kasparek, 2017). As for Indomalayan Realm, Kasparek (2017) and Niu et al. (2019) listed 14 species assigned to 3 subgenera: Metatrachusa Pasteels 1969; Orthanthidium Mavromoustakis 1953; Paraanthidium Friese 1898. In this paper, we describe morphologically a new Trachusa species coming from Vietnam. ...
... The new species is assigned to the subgenus Paraanthidium Friese 1898 based on the following characters (Michener, 2007;Kasparek, 2017): mandible with 5 teeth; interocellar distance about half of ocelloccipital distance; subantennal suture slightly arcuate outward; second recurrent vein distal to second submarginal crossvein; scutellum protruding; omaulus carinate; arolia present. The subgenus Paraanthidium, therefore, now includes fifteen species with this newly described, 12 of which with Oriental distribution. ...
A new species of Trachusa Panzer 1804 is described from Vietnam: Trachusa vietnamensis sp. nov. that is assigned to subgenus Paraanthidium Friese 1898 and is the first Trachusa species found in Vietnam. The species is described from a single female specimen, so the male remains undescribed. A morphological description and a series of pictures are given to distinguish this species from other species of the same subgenus; the Kasparek's identification key is also updated. The barcode sequence obtained from the amplification of COI region was deposited in the BOLD System (SPNCR001-21).
... The tribe Anthidiini currently consists of 894 known species belonging to 40 genera worldwide (Ascher and Pickering 2021). The known Indian fauna includes 46 species in the following 13 genera: Acedanthidium (1), Anthidiellum (5), Eoanthidium (5), Euaspis (4), Icteranthidium (2), Pachyanthidium (2), Stelis (2), Trachusa (2), Trachusoides (1), Anthidium (13), Anthidium_sensu_lato (2), Indanthidium (1), and Pseudoanthidium (6; Gupta 1993;Kasparek 2017;Kumar et al. 2017;Ascher and Pickering 2021). In this study, four Anthidiini species, including one new genus, are added to the Indian fauna (Fig. 1). ...
We report for the first time in India one genus, Bathanthidium Mavromoustakis, and the following four species of the bee tribe Anthidiini (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) based on material deposited at the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata: Anthidium ( Anthidium ) florentinum (Fabricius), Anthidium ( Proanthidium ) qingtaoi Niu and Zhu, Anthidiellum ( Pycnanthidium ) carinatum (Wu), and Bathanthidium ( Manthidium ) binghami (Friese). Illustrations of each of these species are provided, together with the information about their distribution, floral association, and diagnostic features.
The genus Eoanthidium though not species-rich has a wide distribution that extends over the Afrotropical, Palaearctic and Indomalayan regions. The species of the Middle East are here revised and their distribution evaluated in this zoogeographic hub between these three realms. Eoanthidium afroarabicum Kasparek & Griswold sp. nov. was found to have a broad distribution from southern Oman and the Gebel Elba area, Egypt to Mali and Burkina Faso, and is the only species of the genus known to link the Middle East with Africa. Anthidiellum crenulatum Warncke, 1982 is transferred to the genus Eoanthidium, and E. bakerorum Engel, 2004 is recognised as a junior synonym of it. The distribution of E. crenulatum comb. nov. extends over the surroundings of the Gulf of Oman. A structurally very similar species, E. flavifrontale Kasparek sp. nov., was found in south-east Anatolia and is regarded as its geographically isolated allospecies whose speciation is supposed to be triggered by the barrier imposed by the Syrio-Arabian desert. While DNA sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase 1 (CO1 barcoding) gene confirmed the validity of E. crenulatum and E. afroarabicum as distinct species and their attribution to Eoanthidium, they also revealed possible ambiguities in the subgeneric classification of Eoanthidium and the generic assignment of the Asian Anthidiellum (Pycnanthidium) carinatum (Wu, 1962). Of the 11 species of Eoanthidium found in the Middle East, six are endemic, two species are also affiliated with Europe, two with Asia, and one with both Europe and Asia. Only one species is found both in the Middle East and the Afrotropical realm.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:3A5A799F-F211-459A-91A8-6B654152FEDE
Dans cet article, l'auteur présente quelques publications récentes essentiellement européennes intéressant principalement les Apoidea ainsi que quelques autres groupes d'Hyménoptères.
Second reading note. In this article, the author presents some recent and mostly European publications mainly about Apoidea and some others about different groups of Hymenoptera.
A hitherto unknown species of Anthidium, Anthidium atlaskabirense n. sp., is described from southern Morocco and new material is presented of the little-known species Anthidium berbericum Pasteels, 1981. This material allowed a clearer definition of the limits of its distribution and a first description of the female. Both species are confined to the Atlas Mountains region, with A. berbericum being distributed from the southern foothills down to almost sea level, whereas A. atlaskabirense n. sp. is found at 1900 m asl and appears to be restricted to the high mountainous areas. Both species are closely related to Anthidium taeniatum Latreille, 1809, which occurs in Morocco allopatrically in the northern and central regions where there is a prevailing Mediterranean climate. All three species possess modifications to the facial hairs such as apically curved hairs on the clypeus, and in the case of A. atlaskabirense n. sp. also on the supraclypeal area and upper face. These features are hypothesized as adaptations to collect pollen from flowers with nototribic pollen delivery such as in the Lamiaceae and Scrophulariaceae, i.e. flowers that deposit pollen on the upper side of visitors.
Data on 34 species of anthidiine bees collected in Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan are reported. Sixteen species are new to Azerbaijan as a whole, and six other species are new to Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. A total of 46 species of Anthidiini are currently known from Azerbaijan, 41 of them are known from Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic. This is distinctly less in comparison with the adjacent faunas of Turkey (93 species) and Iran (75) but more than the understudied faunas of Georgia (16) and Armenia (17). It is assumed that the number of Anthidiini species in Azerbaijan may be at least by one-third larger than the figure given herein. Two new synonymies are proposed: Anthidium gussakovskiji Mavromoustakis, 1939 = A. akanthurum Nadimi et Talebi, 2014, syn. n., and A. wuestneii Mocsáry, 1887 = A. bischoffi dzhachrumicum Popov, 1967, syn. n. Anthidium punctatum Latreille, 1809 is also reported for the first time from Georgia and A. wuestneii is reported for the first time from Armenia.
Solitary bees serve as important native pollinators of wild plants and crops. Several species of bees, which form strong populations in open habitats of European landscapes, nest in empty snail shells. In the present study, we focused on shell-nesting bees in near-natural habitats neighbouring almond orchards near the town Lleida in north-east Spain. We performed a series of manipulative experiments, which aimed to elucidate the importance of empty shells of four common large- and medium-sized gastropod species for nesting bees in near-natural and ruderal habitats surrounding the almond orchards. We also matched these data with findings of bees in naturally occurring shells at each examined site. All study sites consisted of habitats with naturally present shells and evidence of the natural presence of the study species of bees. In total, we recorded 15 nesting bee and wasp species and eight species of hymenopteran parasite in collected shells, one of which, the spider wasp Priocnemis propinqua, was recorded nesting in empty gastropod shells for the first time. In total, the deployed shells hosted eight nesting species and two species of parasitic Hymenoptera. The prevalence of nests in experimentally deployed shells was low, with only a single nest present near irrigated orchards. The abundance of nests was also low at sites where the naturally present shells were highly abundant. Combined, available evidence suggests the importance of near-natural habitats for the presence of shell-nesting bees and wasps in South-European landscapes. The abundance of shell nesting bees and wasps does not increase proportionally with the increase in empty snail shell abundance and other factors should be considered limiting at such sites.
A new dark species of Trachusa Panzer, 1804 is described from Peninsular Malaysia: Trachusa tenebrosa sp. n. The female lacks yellow markings and resembles both in structure and colouration Trachusa ovata. Main distinctive characters are: punctation of terga, shape of mandibular teeth and colouration of forewing. Trachusa tenebrosa sp. n., together with T. ovata, is assigned to the newly erected ovata species group within the subgenus Paraanthidium Friese. The genus Trachusa comprises now in the Old World 31 species in 6 subgenera, with 15 of them belonging to the subgenus Trachusa (Paraanthidium) which is found in the Indomalayan, Palaearctic and Afrotropical zoogeographic realms. An overview is given of the Old World species of Trachusa together with their subgeneric classification and clustering in species groups.
http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:120E1F74-9D47-404E-A913-C192DF462BEF
Trachusapubescens (Morawitz, 1872) s. l. has a distribution extending from south-eastern Europe over Anatolia and the Caucasus to Iran and Turkmenistan, and was formerly regarded as a species with high intraspecific variation. By means of an examination of 208 specimens from all parts of the distribution area, covering structural features of the head (mandibles, clypeus), the apical terga and the genitalia, the colouration pattern as well as a morphometric analysis of 26 body measurements with multivariate statistical methods (Principal Component Analysis, Discriminant Analysis), it was possible to assign the material to five species of which two are new to science ( Trachusabalcanicasp. n. and T.hakkariensissp. n. ). Two taxa which had previously been described as “variations” or subspecies are elevated to species rank: T.verhoeffi (Mavromoustakis, 1955), stat. n. and T.maxima (Friese, 1931), stat. n. Additionally, some populations can be distinguished by their colouration pattern or by subtle differences in size or body shape, but these features are apparently of no taxonomic significance at the species level. Trachusabalcanica sp. n. and T.verhoeffi have distribution areas which do not overlap with any of the other members of the species group and can thus be characterised as allospecies. By contrast, the distribution areas of the other three species, T.pubescens , T.maxima and T.hakkariensis sp. n., overlap to a certain extent and they co-exist at least to some degree in sympatry. While they have been found in the same region, they have so far never been found together at exactly the same location and it is suggested that species divergence occurred in parallel with ecological differentiation. Niche partitioning such as flower preferences is a mechanism which may be invoked to explain this. Some specimens with intermediate characters were found, particularly in contact zones, and it is thought that some hybridisation may occur. A partly melanistic individual of T.balcanicasp. n. was found, which is probably the first described melanistic individual in the tribe Anthidiini.
217 species of aculeate Hymenoptera (Insecta) were recorded from 1997 to 2004 in the “Baggerweieren” nature reserve in “Haff Réimech”, Luxembourg. Three species are new to the fauna of Luxembourg: Evagetes gibbulus (Lepeletier, 1845), Ectemnius confinis (Walker, 1871), and Oxybelus mucronatus (Fabricius, 1793). The results of investigations into the floral ecology, predation on other insects, nesting preferences and aggregations are presented. The importance of the preservation of diverse microhabitats for the conservation of the aculeate diversity in the area is stressed.
Nos investigations menées dans le Nord-Est algérien et l'utilisation de données d'autres auteurs révèlent
la présence de 382 espèces d’Abeilles appartenant à 55 genres. Celles-ci se répartissent en six familles : Colletidae
(2 genres, 25 espèces), Melittidae (3 genres, 9 espèces), Halictidae (8 genres, 60 espèces), Andrenidae (5 genres,
77 espèces), Apidae (17 genres, 111 espèces) et Megachilidae (20 genres, 100 espèces). Comparée à la faune
ouest paléarctique, il ressort un fort glissement en faveur des Megachilini et Osmiini (Megachilidae) en Algérie
alors qu’en Europe de l’Ouest ce sont les Bombini (Bourdons, genre Bombus) (Apidae) qui sont les plus divers.
Les Abeilles à langue longue sont les mieux représentées avec 211 espèces contre 171 seulement pour celles
à langue courte en Algérie. Dans l'Ouest paléarctique ce sont les espèces à langue courte qui sont majoritaires ;
on en compte 253 espèces en Baden-Wurtenberg (Allemagne) contre 137 seulement à langue longue.
Summary. – Hymenoptera Apoidea of eastern Algeria and comparison with western Palaearctic fauna.
Our own investigations in North Eastern Algeria and data from other authors revealed the presence of 382
species of Bees belonging to 55 genera.These species were distributed into six families: Colletidae (2 genera, 25
species), Melittidae (3 genera, 9 species), Halictidae (8 genera, 60 species), Andrenidae (5 genera, 77 species),
Apidae (17 genera, 111 species) and Megachilidae (20 genera, 100 species). Compared to the west Palaearctic
fauna, long tongued Bees were more represented with 211 species against 171 for those with a short tongue in
Algeria. In West Palaearctic the short tongued Bees constituted the majority: 253 species in Baden-Wurtenberg
(Germany) against 137 long tongued species. There is a greater number of Megachilini and Osmiini (Megachilidae)
in Algeria whereas in Western Europe, Bumblebees of the genus Bombus (Bombini, Apidae) are the most diverse.
Key words. – Hymenoptera, Apoidea, North-Eastern Algeria, Western Palaearctic.
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It was given the data on distribution in Crimea, relative quantity, habitats and bionomical features of four wild bees species of the family Megachilidae recorded in the last edition of Red Data Book of Ukraine (2009): Trachusa pubescens (Morawitz, 1872), Stelis annulata (Lepeletier, 1841), Megachile lefebvrei Lepeletier, 1841 and Megachile giraudi Gerstaecker, 1869. The labels data on all specimens of these species collected in Crimea which kept in collections of Zoological Museum of MSU (Moscow), Zoological Institute of RAS (St. Petersburg), Institute of Zoology of NAS of Ukraine (Kiev), Kharkov Entomological Society (Kharkov) and Vernadskiy Taurida National University (Simferopol) are shown. Possibility of field identification of the species on the basis of well visible characters, degree of its protection and necessity of additional protection measures in Crimea were discussed.
The bee tribe Anthidiini (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) is a large, cosmopolitan group of solitary bees that exhibit intriguing nesting behavior. We present the first molecular-based phylogenetic analysis of relationships within Anthidiini using model-based methods and a large, multi-locus dataset (five nuclear genes, 5081 base pairs), as well as a combined analysis using our molecular dataset in conjunction with a previously published morphological matrix. We discuss the evolution of nesting behavior in Anthidiini and the relationship between nesting material and female mandibular morphology. Following an examination of the morphological characters historically used to recognize anthidiine genera, we recommend the use of a molecular-based phylogenetic backbone to define taxonomic groups prior to the assignment of diagnostic morphological characters for these groups. Finally, our results reveal the paraphyly of numerous genera and have significant consequences for anthidiine classification. In order to promote a classification system based on stable, monophyletic clades, we hereby make the following changes to Michener's (2007) classification: The subgenera Afranthidium (Zosteranthidium) Michener and Griswold, 1994, Afranthidium (Branthidium) Pasteels, 1969 and Afranthidium (Immanthidium) Pasteels, 1969 are moved into the genus Pseudoanthidium, thus forming the new combinations Pseudoanthidium (Zosteranthidium), Pseudoanthidium (Branthidium), and Pseudoanthidium (Immanthidium). The genus NeanthidiumPasteels, 1969 is also moved into the genus Pseudoanthidium, thus forming the new combination Pseudoanthidium (Neanthidium). Based on morphological characters shared with our new definition of the genus Pseudoanthidium, the subgenus Afranthidium (Mesanthidiellum) Pasteels, 1969 and the genus GnathanthidiumPasteels, 1969 are also moved into the genus Pseudoanthidium, thus forming the new combinations Pseudoanthidium (Mesanthidiellum) and Pseudoanthidium (Gnathanthidium).
H-7453 Mernye Rákóczi út 5., Hungary JóZan, Zs.: Checklist of Hungarian Sphecidae and Apidae species (Hymenoptera, Sphecidae and Apidae). Abstract: Checklist of Hungarian sphecoid wasps (Sphecidae) and bees (Apidae). 306 Sphecidae and 704 Apidae species are listed. Species, which were collected 50 years or earlier, treated as extinct species. I have not seen voucher specimen of the following species: Halictus varipes, Halictus carinthiacus, Hylaeus hungari-cus, Osmia hybrida, Osmia versicolor, Sphecodes hungaricus, Sphecodes schencki and Sphecodes sareptensis. These species are not listed. Belomicroides fergusoni (Sphecidae), Andrena pyropygia, Halictus cochlearitar-sis, Melitta wankowiczi and Osmia scutellaris are first records for Hungary.