Hylaeus (Hylaeus) araxanus ( WARNCKE, 1981 )

Özbek, Hikmet & Dathe, Holger H., 2020, The bees of the genus Hylaeus FABRICIUS, 1793 of Turkey, with keys to the subgenera and species (Hymenoptera: Anthophila, Colletidae), Beiträge Zur Entomologie = Contributions to Entomology 70 (2), pp. 273-346 : 302

Hylaeus (Hylaeus) araxanus ( WARNCKE, 1981)

Prosopis araxana WARNCKE, 1981: 171 , . Turkey: Tuzluca, Aras valley; Iran.

Hylaeus (Hylaeus) araxanus ( WARNCKE, 1981) – DATHE & PROSHCHALYKIN 2018: 28.

Remarks: Holotype of this species is a male from outermost eastern Turkey (Iğdır), but apart from the this, no other Turkish specimens are known. However, WARNCKE (1981: 192) mentioned 146 specimens of both sexes as paratypes from Iran. Our knowledge about the range of this species was recently extended by DATHE & PROSH- CHALYKIN (2018) with evidence from five Central Asian countries. While H. araxanus is widespread and usually has been captured in numbers, it must be classified as rare in Turkey ( Fig. 17.2 ).

This is amazing, because the species is small, but easy to recognize. The wrinkly-striped forehead region of the males is reminiscent of H. moricei , but in H. araxanus the head is wider than long, the punctation, especially of the mesopleura, coarser, and the sculpture smooth and shiny.

Distribution: Turkey, Iran, Central Asia: Kazakhstan,

Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan.

Figures

Fig. 17: Distribution map of rarely recorded Hylaeus species in Turkey: species collected in only one (1-12) or two (II-X)