Phylogeny of the orchid-bee genus Euglossa Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with emphasis on the subgenera E. (Glossura) Cockerell and E. (Glossuropoda) Moure

Abstract

We investigated the phylogenetic relationships among species of Euglossa Latreille (1802) (Apidae: Euglossina). We were especially interested in the subgenera E. (Glossura) Cockerell (1917) and E. (Glossuropoda) Moure (1989); two widely accepted taxa, since recent analyzes suggested that Glossuropoda may render Glossura paraphyletic. Fifty-five species were included, 47 of them representing the main lineages of Euglossa s. l. and eight as outgroups. We coded morphological characters from male bees, and obtained DNA sequences of four genes from Genbank. Phylogenetic analyses were carried out using both parsimony and Bayesian inference with 3438 characters (116 morphological and 3322 molecular). The results indicate that (i) E. (Glossura), E. (Glossuropoda), E. (Euglossa), and E. (Euglossella) Moure (1967b) are monophyletic, (ii) the first two taxa are reciprocally monophyletic, and that (iii) the latter is the sister group of the remaining subgenera . Euglossa (Glossuropoda) contains six species subdivided in three groups: E. intersecta Latreille (1817) species group (E. intersecta and E. cyanochlora Moure (1996)), E. rugilabris Moure (1967a) species group (E. inflata Roubik (2004); E. juremae Moure (1989) and E. rugilabris), and E. nigrosignata Moure (1969) species group (E. nigrosignata). The subgenera E. (Alloglossura) Hinojosa-Díaz and Engel (2012) and E. (Glossurella) Dressler (1982b) arose as paraphyletic groups so they need to be redefined. Here, Euglossa annectans Dressler (1982a) was left as incertae sedis allowing E. (Glossura) monophyletic. Euglossa (Glossura) comprises 17 species subdivided in four groups: E. allosticta Moure (1969) species group (E. allosticta and E. viridifrons Dressler (1982b), E. asarophora Moure (1969) species group (E. asarophora; E. natesi Parra et al. (2006) and E. rufipes Rasmussen and Skov (2006)), E. piliventris Guérin-Menéville (1844) species group (E. lugubris Roubik (2004); E. piliventris and E. tiputini Roubik (2004)) and E. orellana Roubik (2004) species group (E. bazinga Nemésio and Ferrari (2012); E. chalybeata Friese (1925); E. flammea Moure (1969); E. ignita Smith (1874); E. imperialis Cockerell (1922); E. iopoecila Dressler (1982a); E. occidentalis Roubik (2004); E. orellana and E. roubiki Nemésio (2009a)). In this paper, morphological synapomorphies for the monophyletic subgenera of Euglossa s. l., as well as for the species groups of E. (Glossura) and E. (Glossuropoda), are provided for the first time.