Relicthemisia, a new subgenus of the oil-collecting bee genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 with notes on distribution and host plants of C. xanthomelaena Moure &amp; Castro, 2001 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Felipe Vivallo,Fernando César Vieira Zanella

doi:10.5852/ejt.2021.760.1435

Relicthemisia, a new subgenus of the oil-collecting bee genus Centris Fabricius, 1804 with notes on distribution and host plants of C. xanthomelaena Moure & Castro, 2001 (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Felipe Vivallo, Fernando César Vieira Zanella

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5852/ejt.2021.760.1435

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Abstract

Centris xanthomelaena Moure & Castro, 2001 is a relict species, endemic to northeastern Brazil and broadly recorded within the semiarid region of Caatinga xerophilous open vegetation. It was originally included in the subgenus Paracentris Cameron, 1903 but posteriorly interpreted as remotely related to it or to the subgenus Centris s. str. Fabricius, 1804. In this paper it is proposed to recognize this species as the single member of the monotypic Relicthemisia, a new subgenus which belongs to the ‘Centris group’, one of the main internal lineages of the genus. The proposition of this new subgenus is based on both, morphological and molecular data which indicate its long history as a distinct lineage. Distribution records, floral hosts as well as photographs of both sexes of C. xanthomelaena are also provided.

Highlights

Centris Fabricius, 1804 is one of the most abundant and diverse genus of solitary bees in the Neotropical Region
An example of this is the species of the ‘hyptidis group’ Vivallo & Melo, 2009, whose species have been cited in the subgenera Ptilocentris Snelling, 1984; Centris. s. str.; Ptilotopus Klug, 1810; Wagenknechtia Moure, 1950; as well as in Paracentris (Moure et al 2009), with the species of this group recently located in a new subgenus Anisoctenodes Vivallo, 2020
In the key for subgenera of Centris of Michener (2007), this species fits in Paracentris, considering the “female’s basitibial plate with defined secondary plate that lacks sharp projecting margin” and the “margin of secondary plate extending [...] near posterior margin of basitibial plate”, while the male’s lateral ocellus is separated from the eyes by a distance similar to the ocellar diameter, and the T2–T4 covered with dark pubescence

Summary

Introduction

Centris Fabricius, 1804 is one of the most abundant and diverse genus of solitary bees in the Neotropical Region. The taxonomy of this group is quite complex, mainly due to the lack of updated revisions, as well as the large number of described species. The complete taxonomic revision of the species of Paracentris was published by Vivallo (2020), following the interpretation of Zanella (2002) who carried out a phylogenetic analysis using morphological data of a large part of the taxa present in South America. Some species were included in Paracentris intuitively or for practical reasons An example of this is the species of the ‘hyptidis group’ Vivallo & Melo, 2009, whose species have been cited in the subgenera Ptilocentris Snelling, 1984; Centris. A similar case was observed for Penthemisia Moure, 1950, synonymized with Paracentris by Snelling (1966) and still kept as a junior synonym by Michener (2007), which was later recognized as a distinct lineage exclusive from southern South America and reinstated as a distinct subgenus of Centris (Zanella 2002)

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