Centris

Vivallo, Felipe & Zanella, Fernando César Vieira, 2012, A new species of Centris (Paracentris) Cameron, 1903 from northeastern Brazil, with a key for the Centris species of the Caatinga region (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Zootaxa 3298, pp. 1-16 : 5-6

The Centris bees of the Caatinga region

The Caatinga, the semiarid region of northeast portion of Brazil, extends across the states of Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Sergipe, Bahia and the northern part of Minas Gerais (see Zanella 2000, 2003 and references therein). Studies on the bee fauna of the Caatinga have revealed some very relevant aspects, such as the presence of endemic species and some examples of relatively complex relationships between elements of its flora and their pollinators, mainly native bees (Zanella & Martins, 2003). Different papers (listed in the Table 1), have shown the importance of Centris in the pollination ecology of the flora of the Caatinga, mainly through their role in the reproduction of plant species that offer oil as a reward. A list of the Centris species that occur in the Caatinga can be found in Table 1.

Species State* Reference

C. hyptidis Ducke BA Aguiar et al. (2003)

PB Aguiar et al. (1995, 2003); Aguiar & Martins (1997) PE Machado & Lopes (2003)

RN Zanella (2003); Aguiar et al. (2003)

C. (Centris) aenea Lepeletier BA Martins (1994); Viana (1999); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar & Almeida (2002);

Aguiar et al. (2003); Batalha-Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Leite & Machado (1999)

RN Zanella (2003); Aguiar et al. (2003)

C. (Centris) caxiensis Ducke BA Martins (1994); Viana (1999); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar et al. (2003) RN Rodarte et al. (2008)

C. (Centris) decolorata Lepeletier ¹ BA Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar et al. (2003)

C. (Centris) flavifrons (Fabricius) BA Viana (1999); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Aguiar et al. (2003); Rodarte et al. (2008) C. (Centris) pulchra Moure, Oliveira & Viana BA Viana (1999); Rodarte et al. (2008)

C. (Centris) spilopoda Moure BA Viana (1999); Aguiar (2003b); Aguiar et al. (2003) CE Ducke (1908) ³

C. (Centris) varia (Ericsson) ² BA Viana (1999)

RN Rodarte et al. (2008)

C. (Hemisiella) tarsata Smith BA Martins (1994); Lewis & Gibbs (1999); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar & Almeida

(2002); Aguiar et al. (2003, 2005); Batalha-Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Leite & Machado (1999); Aguiar et al. (2003) PE Machado & Lopes (2003)

RN Zanella (2003); Aguiar et al. (2003)

C. (Hemisiella) trigonoides Lepeletier BA Martins (1994); Viana (1999); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar & Almeida (2002);

Aguiar et al. (2003); Batalha-Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Aguiar et al. (2003)

PE Machado & Lopes (2003)

..... continued on the next page Species State* Reference

RN Zanella (2003); Aguiar et al. (2003) C. (Hemisiella) vittata Lepeletier BA Martins (1994); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Aguiar et al. (2003) Centris (Heterocentris) analis Lepeletier BA Aguiar et al. (2005); Rodarte et al. (2008) C. (Melacentris) obsoleta Lepeletier BA Lewis & Gibbs (1999) 4; Viana (1999); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Batalha-

Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Aguiar et al. (2003)

CE Ducke (1908)

C. (Paracentris) xanthomelaena BA Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Aguiar et al. (2003); Batalha-

Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) RN Aguiar et al. (2003); Zanella (2003) C. (Ptilotopus) maranhensis Ducke BA Viana (1999); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Aguiar et al. (2003)

C. (Ptilotopus) moerens (Perty) BA Martins (1994); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar et al.

(2003)

CE Ducke (1911)

C. (Ptilotopus) sponsa Smith BA Viana (1999); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar et al. (2003); Rodarte et al. (2008)

PB Aguiar et al. (2003)

CE Ducke (1908, 1911)

C. (Trachina) fuscata Lepeletier 5 BA Martins (1994); Viana (1999); Aguiar et al. (1995); Lewis & Gibbs (1999); Aguiar & Almeida (2002); Aguiar (2003a, b); Aguiar et al. (2003); Batalha- Filho et al. (2007); Rodarte et al. (2008) PB Aguiar & Martins (1997); Leite & Machado (1999); Aguiar et al. (2003) RN Zanella (2003); Aguiar et al. (2003) PE Machado & Lopes (2003)

C. (Xanthemisia) bicolor Lepeletier 6 BA Martins (1994); Aguiar et al. (2003) *BA: Bahia, CE: Ceará, PB: Paraíba, PE: Pernambuco, RN: Rio Grande do Norte.

¹ cited as C. leprieuri (Spinola) .

² cited as C. poecila Lepeletier.

³ cited as C. lanipes (Fabricius) (misidentification, probably C. cf. spilopoda or C. trigonoides ). 4 cited as C. pectoralis Burmeister.

5 uncertain identity.

6 uncertain identity, probably C. lutea Friese (see below).