Andrena (Micrandrena) niveata Friese, 1887

Wood, Thomas James, Praz, Christophe, Selis, Marco, Flaminio, Simone, Mei, Maurizio, Cornalba, Maurizio, Rosa, Paolo, Divelec, Romain Le & Michez, Denis, 2023, Revisions to the Andrena fauna of Italy, with the description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), Fragmenta entomologica 55 (2), pp. 271-310 : 286

Andrena (Micrandrena) niveata Friese, 1887 and Andrena (Micrandrena) niveata ssp. haloga Warncke, 1980

Remarks. Andrena niveata is a widespread species across most of Europe. Warncke treated populations in parts of Iberia, southern Italy, and eastern Turkey at a sub-specific level ( Gusenleitner & Schwarz 2002). The Iberian subspecies A. niveata ssp. lecana Warncke, 1975 was recently elevated to specific status ( Wood 2023a). Andrena niveata ssp. haloga was described from Lecce, with paratypes from Manfredonia and Monfalcone ( Warncke 1980). The inclusion of material from Monfalcone is interesting, because this town is in the region of Friuli Venezia Giulia in north-eastern Italy, placing it closer to Germany and Hungary which represent the type locality for A. niveata ( Friese 1887, no additional precision given). Adding to uncertainty is that the location of the type material of A. niveata is unclear as it could not be found at either the ZMHB or SMFD, the suggested depositories given by Gusenleitner & Schwarz (2002). Confusingly, Warncke (1980) reported A. niveata ssp. haloga from Tunisia, but did not list any Tunisian paratypes, and his distribution maps ( Gusenleitner & Schwarz 2002) do not show any A. niveata s. l. dots for Tunisia. For now, only A. niveata is considered at the specific level, with additional study necessary to under- stand the status of the subspecies haloga, and potentially to designate a neotype for A. niveata itself. In total, we have been able to examine only a single specimen of true A. niveata from northern Italy.

In addition, we examined male and female specimens of A. niveata s. l. (subspecies unclear) from Sardinia; the female agrees morphologically with A. niveata haloga , especially in the particularly shagreened scutum with weakly impressed punctures, as observed for example in A. subopaca or A. pusilla , and the shagreened, nearly impunctate terga, (including the margins, which are slightly impressed), as in A. pusilla . These female specimens also lack the conspicuous and dense hairbands on the tergal margins, and thus strongly diverge morphologically from A. niveata s. str. In fact, these female specimens are very difficult to separate from A. pusilla . The male can be recognized as A. niveata s. l. based on the typical genital capsule; as in the female, the terga and scutum are strongly shagreened and nearly impunctate, as in A. pusilla but strongly deviating from A. niveata s. str. One female was barcoded; the resulting barcode is genetically very close to an unpublished sequence of A. niveata from France (similarity 99.37% based on the BOLD identification tool) and to a published sequence from Germany (genetic distance 0.67%). Awaiting additional analyses, the identity of this Sardinian taxon is retained as A. niveata .

Material examined

( Andrena niveata s. str.)

ITALY: LOMBARDIA: 1♀, San Colombano al Lambro (MI), 30 May 1929, leg. L. Micheli, ( MSNM) .

( Andrena niveata s. l.)

ITALY: SARDINIA: 1♂, 3♀, Buggerru, Canyon Gutturu Cardaxius, 19 Apr 2017, leg. J. Litman & C. Praz ( CPC); BOLD accession number HYMAA523-23