Andrena (?Aciandrena) badiyah, Wood, 2021

Wood, Thomas James, 2021, Fifteen new Andrena species from little-visited arid, Mediterranean, and mountainous parts of the Old World (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), Zootaxa 4933 (4), pp. 451-492 : 453-456

Andrena (?Aciandrena) badiyah spec. nov.

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HOLOTYPE: JORDAN: Rawayshid [Ruwaished], 23.iv.1996, 1♀, leg. Marek Halada ( OÖLM).

PARATYPES: JORDAN: Same as holotype, 1³ , 1♀ ( OÖLM) , 1♀ ( TJWC) , 1♀ ( SMNHTAU) .

Description: Female: Body length 7 mm ( Figure 1 ). Head: Black, 1.3 times wider than long ( Figure 2 ). Clypeus domed, irregularly punctate, punctures separated by 0.5–2 puncture diameters; longitudinal impunctate central line present, underlying surface weakly shagreened, stronger basally, becoming weaker apically. Process of labrum trapezoidal, corners rounded, shiny ( Figure 3 ). Gena moderately broad, equalling width of compound eye; ocelloccipital distance subequal to width of lateral ocellus. Fovea moderately broad, dorsally occupying ½ of area between lateral ocellus and compound eye, slightly narrowed below to level of antennal insertions, not separated from inner margin of compound eye. Gena, vertex, face, and scape with white hairs, longest not exceeding half of length of scape. Antenna dark, A3 apically, A4–12 lightened orange below, A3 slightly exceeds A4+5, shorter than A4+5+6. Mesosoma: Scutum and scutellum finely and regularly punctate, punctures separated by 2 puncture diameters, underlying surface completely smooth and strongly shining ( Figure 4 ). Pronotum with weak humeral angle, dorsolaterally slightly angulate, inconspicuous. Episternum and propodeum finely reticulate, weakly shining, propodeal triangle granulose, indicated by change in reticulation, slightly duller, basally with very slight short rugosity, without ridges or rugae. Episternum and propodeum with moderately long white hairs, propodeal corbicula well-formed dorsally, lateral faces of propodeum regularly but sparsely haired, all hairs not exceeding length of scape. Scutum and scutellum with short, semi-squamous light brown hairs, very sparse centrally, dense along lateral margins of discs. Legs dark, apical tarsal segments and hind basitarsi lightened orange, pubescence whitish, scopa white. Hind tarsal claws without inner teeth. Wings hyaline, venation and stigma orange, nervulus strongly antefurcal. Metasoma: Terga dark, apical margins lightened yellow and broadly hyaline ( Figure 5 ), tergal discs with sparse, fine, inconspicuous hair-bearing punctures, becoming denser laterally, here separated by 2–3 puncture diameters ( Figure 6 ). Tergal discs with underlying surface microreticulate, weakly shining; T2–4 with thick white hair bands that obscure underlying surface, on T2 medially interrupted, T3–4 complete. Apical fringe of T5 and hairs flanking pygidial plate golden; pygidial plate flattened, centrally with fine mesh-like pattern.

Male: Body length 6 mm ( Figure 7 ). Head: Black, 1.4 times wider than long ( Figure 8 ). Clypeus weakly domed, coloured yellow with exception of two lateral black marks, evenly punctate, punctures separated by 0.5–1 puncture diameter; weak longitudinal impunctate line present, underlying surface shagreened, weakly shining. Gena moderately broad, equalling width of compound eye; ocelloccipital distance subequal to width of lateral ocellus. Gena, vertex, face, and scape with white hairs, longest not exceeding half of length of scape. Antenna dark, A4–12 lightened orange below, A3 longer than A4 which is clearly wider than long, A3 shorter than A4+5. Mesosoma: Scutum and scutellum sparsely and irregularly punctate, punctures separated by 2–3 puncture diameters, underlying surface smooth and strongly shining, shagreenation restricted to extreme disc margins ( Figure 9 ).

Pronotum, episternum and propodeum as in female. Episternum, propodeum, scutum, and scutellum with long white hairs, longest equalling length of scape. Legs dark, apexes of tibiae and tarsi lightened orange. Wings hyaline, venation and stigma orange, nervulus strongly antefurcal. Metasoma: Terga structurally as in female, hair bands reduced ( Figure 10 ). Genitalia simple, gonocoxae with weak teeth, gonostyli with straight outer margin, apically rounded, penis valve basally relatively broad and parallel-sided before narrowing apically ( Figure 11 ).

Diagnosis: The placement of small black Andrena is highly challenging because of the variation within this group and the polyphyly of the existing subgeneric concepts ( Pisanty et al. 2020). Recognising which characters can be used to consistently identify good monophyletic groups is therefore difficult. The distinctive characters of A. badiyah are the strongly shiny and sparsely punctate scutum, the presence of short semi-squamous hairs on the thoracic dorsum, the antefurcal nervulus, the absence of sculpturing on the propodeal triangle, the orange hind basitarsi, the simple male genitalia, and the domed and striation-free clypeus in the female and the yellow-marked clypeus in the male.

The sparsely punctate and shiny scutum in combination with short semi-squamous hairs in the female sex is highly suggestive of an association with the red-marked A. arsinoe Schmiedeknecht, 1900 and A. amicula Warncke, 1967 which were placed in the Graecandrena ( Warncke 1968), but these have strongly different male genitalia (gonostyli with strongly constricted, finger-like apexes) and have been shown to fall far from the other clades of small black Andrena ( Pisanty et al. 2020) . The granulose (lacking ridges or rugae) propodeal triangle in combination with the moderately broad foveae should place it in the true Aciandrena clade (the species around A. aciculata Morawitz, 1886 ) as it lacks a propodeal triangle well-marked by carinae or rugosity (Micrandrena, Fumandrena , Proxiandrena ), a clypeus with longitudinal striations (Distandrena partim), or foveae narrowed below to the point of linearity (Distandrena partim), and it can be separated from the true Graecandrena by the absence of rugosity at the base of the propodeal triangle, by the yellow clypeus of the male, and by the male genitalia which do not have the typical Graecandrena form. However, because of the shiny scutal integument which is not known from otherp Aciandrena species, this placement should be considered provisional until further, preferably genetic, data are available.

For direct species diagnosis, in the female sex the combination of an almost entirely shiny scutum and scutellum together with short semi-squamous hairs and without red-marked terga (excluding A. arsinoe and A. amicula ) is distinctive, as similar Aciandrena species with similar short semi-squamous hairs have clear shagreenation on the scutal disc (e.g. A. hillana Warncke, 1968 , A. pavonia Warncke, 1974 , and A. pellucida Warncke, 1974 ), and where such shagreenation is weak (e.g. A. pellucida ) it can be further separated by the broader foveae that are wider than the width of a flagellum (as wide as a flagellum in A. pellucida ). It can be separated from A. palmyriae spec. nov. (see below) because the process of the labrum is entire (not apically notched), the hind tibiae are dark (not orange), the nervulus is antefurcal (interstitial), and the tergal hair bands are shorter and less dense. In the male sex, complete diagnosis is difficult because many of the desert-living Aciandrena have been described only from the female sex, but the combination of yellow clypeus, granulose propodeal triangle, shiny scutum and scutellum, antefurcal nervulus, orange hind basitarsi, and genitalia with weakly produced gonocoxal teeth should be sufficient to facilitate identification, as most Aciandrena males have more strongly produced gonocoxal teeth such as A. spolata Warncke, 1968 ( Figure 12 , see also photographs and notes in Pisanty et al. 2016). The genitalia are extremely close to A. pavonia , but this species has a black clypeus (see Gusenleitner and Schwarz 2002).

Etymology: The name is derived from the Arabic name for the Syrian desert, the Badia (Arabic: Bâdiyah Ash-Shâm) that stretches over large parts of Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

Figures

FIGURES 1–6. Andrena badiyah spec. nov. 1. female profile, 2. female face, 3. female face detail, 4. female scutum, 5. female terga, 6. female terga detail.

FIGURES 7–12. Andrena badiyah spec. nov. 7. male profile, 8. male face, 9. male scutum, 10. male terga, 11. male genitalia. Andrena spolata Warncke, 1968; 12. male genitalia.