Andrena (incertae sedis) maidaqi Scheuchl & Gusenleitner, 2007

Wood, Thomas James, 2023, Revisions to the Andrena fauna of north-western Africa with a focus on Morocco (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 916 (1), pp. 1-85 : 18-19

Andrena (incertae sedis) maidaqi Scheuchl & Gusenleitner, 2007

Andrena (Poecilandrena) maidaqi Scheuchl & Gusenleitner, 2007: 548 , ♀ ♂ ( United Arab Emirates: DEI).

Andrena (Carandrena) hoggara Wood, 2021: 460 , ♀ ( Algeria: OÖLM). Syn. nov.

Material examined (illustrative)

ALGERIA • ♀, holotype of A. hoggara ; Amsel , 30 km S of Tamanrasset; 1 Apr. 1989; M. Schwarz leg.; OÖLM • 1 ♀, paratype of A. hoggara ; Tamrit [illegible, presumed to be somewhere in south-eastern Algeria]; 4 May 1987; Strejček leg.; OÖLM .

MOROCCO • 1 ♂; 10 km SW of Akka ; 28 Mar. 1986; K. Warncke leg.; OÖLM .

OMAN • 1 ♀; J. Hawrah [exact location unclear]; 1 Apr. 1983; I.L. Hamer leg.; NHMUK .

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES • 1 ♂; 5 ♀♀; Ummal al Qaiwain , NW of Biatah ; 7 Mar. 2020; M. Snižek leg.; OÖLM • 4 ♂♂; Wadi Al-Hayl ; 23 Feb. 2008; K. Mahamood and A. Polaszek leg.; NHMUK • 1 ♂; Hili [Al Hili]; 6 Jan. 1983; I.L. Hamer leg.; NHMUK • 1 ♀; Al Ain ; 26 Mar. 1982; I.L. Hamer leg.; NHMUK • 1 ♂; Ras Al-Khaimah, NW of Munay ; 9 Mar. 2019; M. Snižek leg.; OÖLM .

Remarks

Andrena maidaqi was described from the United Arab Emirates. The species is recognisable due to its distinctive male genital capsule and it likely belongs to an undescribed group of desert-dwelling Andrena species probably including A. asluji Pisanty, 2022 , A. gafsensis Wood, 2020 , A. helouanensis Friese, 1899 , and A. tenebricorpus Wood, 2020 ( Pisanty et al. 2022a). In the Arabian Peninsula, females have extensively red-marked terga, but are otherwise difficult to recognise structurally due to the absence of strong morphological characters when compared to the distinctive males. Examination of unidentified material in the Warncke collection revealed a dark male specimen from southern Morocco with the genital capsule of A. maidaqi . With this information, a re-examination of the type series of A. hoggara , described from female specimens from the Hoggar Mountains of southern Algeria, revealed that they are structurally identical to A. maidaqi from the United Arab Emirates. The difference is that A. hoggara females have predominantly dark terga, with only the marginal areas lightened reddish. This taxon is therefore synonymised with A. maidaqi , giving it a distribution across southern Morocco and southern Algeria to the Arabian Peninsula.

Distribution

Morocco *, Algeria *, Oman *, United Arab Emirates ( Scheuchl & Gusenleitner 2007).