Euglossa amazonica Dressler, 1982b

Nemésio, André, 2010, The orchid-bee fauna (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of a forest remnant in northeastern Brazil, with new geographic records and an identification key to the known species of the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 2656, pp. 55-66 : 62

Euglossa amazonica Dressler, 1982b

Euglossa amazonica is a widespread species in the Amazon Basin ( Dressler 1982b; Ramírez et al. 2002; Nemésio & Silveira 2007b) and its easternmost record seems to be the state of Maranhão, misidentified as Euglossa truncata (discussed by Nemésio 2009: 159). The present record extends its known distribution more than 2,000 Km eastwards. It should be stressed that the specimens from ESEC Murici here identified as Eg. amazonica are morphologically indistinguishable from specimens of this species from the Amazon. The possibility that this Atlantic Forest population might represent a distinct species should not be discarded, however. Concerning orchid bees, this is the second “Amazonian element” found at ESEC Murici, the first of them being Eulaema felipei , closely related to the Amazonian Eulaema mocsaryi ( Friese, 1899) . Nemésio (2009: 208, 2010: 56–58) has already stressed that some orchid-bee species occurring in both Amazon and Atlantic forests which seem to be highly dependent on densely forested areas may represent different species, but morphologically very difficult to be distinguished or even indistinguishable at all. The Atlantic Forest population of Eg. amazonica seems to be the newest member of this group of species. Future studies on molecular biology may help elucidating this possibility.