Colletes meneliki, Kuhlmann, 2020

Kuhlmann, Michael, 2020, New records of the bee genus Colletes Latreille 1802 (Hymenoptera: Apoidea Colletidae) in Ethiopia with description of a new species, Zootaxa 4722 (6), pp. 583-590 : 587-588

Colletes meneliki sp. n.

( Fig. 3 )

Diagnosis. Colletes meneliki belongs to the C. malmus species-group that comprises seven described species ( C. malmus (Cameron 1905) , C. mackiae Cockerell 1932 , C. malleatus Cockerell 1933 , C. phenax Cockerell 1946 , C. plebeius Cockerell 1946 , C. sordescens Cockerell 1933 , C. sororcula Cockerell 1936 ) and at least 16 undescribed ones that are mostly from southern Africa. The group is characterised by a more or less rounded S 7 in males (cf. Fig. 3c ) in combination with an oily bluish shine of variable intensity on metasomal terga in most species. The new species is among the smallest in this group and unique because of the very dispersed and fine punctation of mesoscutum and metasomal terga ( Fig. 3b ). The combination of shiny, hardly punctured terga and the characteristic shape of S7 is distinctive and there are no species that C. meneliki can be confused with.

Description. Female. Unknown.

Male. Bl = 7.0– 7.5 mm. Head. Head 1.30x wider than long. Integument black except tip of mandible partly dark reddish-brown. Face densely covered with long, white to yellowish-white, erect hairs, on vertex partly dark brown hairs. Malar area medially about half as long as width of mandible base, finely striate. Antenna black. Mesosoma. Integument black. Mesoscutal disc almost impunctate, smooth and shiny. Scutellum sparsely punctate, smooth and shiny. Mesoscutum, scutellum, metanotum, mesepisternum and propodeum covered with long, greyish-white erect hairs, on disc of mesoscutum and apical part of scutellum blackish hairs intermixed ( Fig. 3a ). Wings. Transparent; wing venation brown to blackish. Legs. Integument black; apical tarsi yellowish-brown. Vestiture greyish-white. Metasoma. Integument black with slight oily bluish shine; depressed apical tergal margins yellowish to reddish translucent ( Fig. 3b ). Disc of T1 sparsely covered with long, erect greyish-white hairs ( Fig. 3a, b ); apical tergal hair bands broad ( Fig. 3a, b ). Terga sparsely and very finely punctate (i = 2–4d), between punctures smooth and shiny ( Fig. 3b ). Terminalia. Genitalia and S7 as illustrated ( Figs. 3 c–d).

Type material ( 3 specimens). Holotype, ♂, ETHIOPIA, Sidam prov. , 50 km NE Mega, [E38°27′ N04°24′], 1420m, 24.iv.2007, J. Halada ( OÖLM).

Paratypes: 1 ♂, ETHIOPIA, Oromia State, 25 km SE Mega , E38°26′53′′ N03°55′37′′, 1400 m, 15.iv.2016, J. Halada ( RCMK) ; 1 ♂, ETHIOPIA, Sidam prov., near Bitata [E39°28′ N05°28′], 1480 m, 27.iv.2007, J. Halada ( RCMK) .

Etymology. This species is named after Menelik I., the legendary first emperor of the Ethiopian Empire, illegitimate son of King Salomo and the Queen of Sheba and founder of the Salomonic dynasty.

General distribution. Only known from south eastern Ethiopia.

Floral hosts. unknown.

Seasonal activity (first–last observations). IV.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Colletes meneliki sp. n., male: a. specimen, lateral view; b. metasomal terga 1 and 2; c. metasomal sternum 7 (dorsal view); d. gonostylus (lateral view).