Mourecotelles, TORO & CABEZAS, 1977

Ferrari, Rafael R & Packer, Laurence, 2021, Morphological phylogeny and review of the generic classification of Colletinae (Hymenoptera: Colletidae), Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193 (1), pp. 199-216 : 211

MOURECOTELLES TORO & CABEZAS, 1977

( FIGS 1C, 1D )

Type species: Mourecotelles mixta Toro & Cabezas, 1977 .

Diagnosis: Mandible with a broadly truncate preapical tooth (this study; Supporting Information, Fig. S6D ) is sufficient to distinguish the females of Mourecotelles from those of the other genera of Colletinae , in which the preapical tooth is narrowly rounded (Supporting Information, Fig. S6C ). The males of Mourecotelles can be diagnosed through the combination of mandible with apical tooth only slightly longer than preapical one (this study; Supporting Information, Fig. S15B) and T6 marginal zone not covered with pale tomentum (this study) [mandible with apical tooth distinctly longer than preapical one (Supporting Information, Fig. S15A) in both Colletes and Hemicotelles and T6 marginal zone covered with tomentum in Xanthocotelles ]. Mourecotelles can be further differentiated from both Colletes and Hemicotelles by metapostnotum without transverse carina in both sexes (modified from: Michener, 1989; Fig. 4C ) [metapostnotum with a transverse carina ( Fig. 4D, E ) in Colletes and Hemicotelles ] and from Xanthocotelles by having dark-brown to black hind tibia and basitarsus in both sexes (modified from: Toro & Cabezas, 1978; Fig. 1C, D ) [legs pale-yellow to darkorange ( Fig. 1E, F ) in Xanthocotelles ].

Additional species: Mourecotelles boliviensis Toro & Cabezas, 1977 , M. chillan Toro & Cabezas, 1977 , M. enodis ( Toro & Cabezas, 1977) , M. glycyrrhizae ( Jørgensen, 1912) , M. moldenkei Toro & Cabezas, 1977 , M. puelche Toro & Cabezas, 1977 , Mourecotelles sp.1 , M. spinolae (Crawford & Titus, 1904) and M. triciliatus Toro & Cabezas, 1977 .

Comments: Mourecotelles is mostly distributed in Argentina and Chile ( Toro & Cabezas, 1977, 1978; Michener, 1989, 2007; Moure & Urban, 2002; Moure et al., 2007; Ascher & Pickering, 2020), although there is at least one undescribed species ( Mourecotelles sp.1 ) from southern Brazil. We did not include either M. glycyrrhizae or M. triciliatus in our analyses, but one of us (RRF) has examined the male holotype of the latter and the species is undoubtedly a Mourecotelles . Unfortunately, the original description of M. glycyrrhizae is not detailed enough ( Jörgensen, 1909), and there is no additional descriptive morphological treatment of the species, to permit its generic placement with certainty.

Figures

Figure 1. Lateral habitus of some Colletinae showing some of their diversity. A–P, females, Hemicotelles magallanes (A), H. ruizii (B), Mourecotelles mixtus (C), Mourecotelles sp.1 (D), Xanthocotelles atacama (E), X. fritzi (F), Colletes cyanescens (G), C. cyaniventris (H), C. fulvipes (I), C. halophilus (J), C. nigritulus (K), C. petropolitanus (L), C. rugicollis (M), C. slevini (N), C. solidaginis (O) and C. zuluensis (P). Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 4. Diagnostic features of Colletinae. Numbers shown in red indicate derived character states. A, B, Lateral view of male propodeum, Trichocolletes dowerinensis (A) and Colletes gilvus (B); C–E, posterior view of male metapostnotum, Xanthocotelles atacama (C), Hemicotelles magallanes (D) and C. atripes (E); F, ventral view of male S7 of Mourecotelles sp.1. Scale bars = 1 mm.

Figure 6. Most-parsimonious tree (part two) from the EW analysis showing character state changes. Black rectangles represent unique changes and white rectangles represent homoplastic ones. Character numbers are indicated above branches and the corresponding state changes below the branches. Asterisks indicate type species of the genus. The position of Colletes clypeonitens is doubtful (see text). The Colletinae shown are (from top to bottom) Hemicotelles ruizii, C. cyanescens, C. nigritulus and C. slevini.