Abstract
The stingless bee genus Plectoplebeia Melo (Meliponini) is one of several lineages in the complex Plebeia-group of New World meliponines. The genus has hitherto been known from a single species of the Yungas forests of Bolivia, southern Peru, and northwestern Argentina. A second species is here described from a worker collected from the Eastern Andes of Ecuador, extending the geographic occurrence of the genus northward as well as into the Eastern Cordillera Real Montane Forests. Plectoplebeia aurantia sp. n. is distinguished from the type species, P . nigrifacies (Friese), by the entirely yellowish orange metasoma, extensively yellowish orange or brownish legs, ventrally orange scape, and more distinct lower facial coloration. Additionally, the species differ in the form of the metatibial proventral margin, the form of the first metasomal tergum, the extent of the mesoscutellar protrusion, and the coloration of the wing membranes.
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