Melissodes ecuadoria Bertoni & Schrottky

Vivallo, Felipe, 2009, Notes on the bee genus Alloscirtetica Holmberg, 1909 in northern Chile with the description of two new altiplanic species and a key for the Chilean species of Eucerini (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Zootaxa 2010, pp. 16-30 : 23

Melissodes ecuadoria Bertoni & Schrottky

The female of this species has orange pilosity on mesoscutum and scutellum like M. bruneri , differentiating it by the white pilosity on mesepisternum (dark brown in M. bruneri ) and the yellow bands on metasoma (white in M. bruneri ). It differs from M. sexcinta by the narrow bands on metasoma (in M. sexcinta are very broad, covering the terga almost entirely) and by the black hairs intermixed with the light yellow pilosity on mesoscutum (absent in M. sexcinta ). From M. rufodentata differs by the yellow bands on metasoma (whitish in M. rufodentata ). The male is similar to M. tintinnans , but differs by the dark brown coloration of femora and tibiae (red in M. tintinnans ). It differs from M. nigroaenea by the light brown coloration of terga (dark brown in M. nigroaenea ) and by the yellowish pilosity on the basitibial plate (dark brown in M. nigroaenea ). Melissodes ecuadoria differs from M. sexcinta by the whitish pilosity on mesosoma (mostly orange in M. sexcinta ) and by the whitish bands of pilosity on metasoma (yellow in M. sexcinta ). It differs from M. bruneri by the yellowish translucent tegula (dark brown in M. bruneri ), and from M. rufodentata by the coloration of the bands of metasoma (white in M. ecuadoria , yellow in M. rufodentata ), and by the coloration of the hairs on mesoscutum (whitish in M. ecuadoria , orange in M. rufodentata ). Urban (1973) in her revision of the South American species of the genus provided diagnoses of males and females, distributional records and illustrations of the male’s genitalia.

This species is distributed from northern Chile ( Toro 1986) to Ecuador (Guayas, Guayaquil) ( Urban et al. 2007). In Chile this species visits Medicago sativa L. ( Fabaceae ), Argemone mexicana L. ( Papaveraceae ), Ve r b en a litoralis Kunth ( Verbenaceae ), Pluchea chingoyo (Kunth) DC. and Cosmea bipinnata (Cav.) (Asteraceae) ( Wagenknecht 1970).