Colletes tibestensis Kuhlmann

Kuhlmann, Michael & Proshchalykin, Maxim Yu., 2015, New and remarkable Asian and North African species of Colletes Latreille (Hymenoptera: Colletidae), Zootaxa 4028 (1), pp. 81-101 : 90-91

Colletes tibestensis Kuhlmann , sp. nov.

( Figs 7 a–d)

Diagnosis. The female of C. tibestensis is larger (8 mm) than other species of the C. nanus -group except C. maroccanus Warncke whose metasomal terga are less covered with short appressed hairs (hairless disc of T2 about 1.5x as wide as apical tergal hair band; in C. tibestensis hairless disc narrower than apical tergal hair band, Fig. 7 d). Colletes tibestensis can be clearly identified by the combination of the following characters: large body size, clypeus mostly flat, sparsely and coarsely punctate ( Fig. 7 b) (in other species of the group clypeus distinctly convex, more densely and finely punctate), supraclypeal area broad and mostly flat (distinctly convex in other species of the group), finely striate and slightly matt, punctation on the disc of T1 very fine and dense ( Fig. 7 d), even finer and denser than in C. nanus Friese.

Description. Female. Bl = 8.0 mm. Head slightly wider than long. Integument black to dark reddish-brown. Face, except clypeus and supraclypeal area, densely covered with long, yellowish-white, erect hairs, on vertex a bit darker ( Fig. 7 b). Clypeus almost flat, without longitudinal median depression, supraclypeal area roughly triangular and convex in profile, finely striate. Clypeus sparsely and coarsely punctate (i = 1–2d); surface between punctures smooth and shiny, at base partly finely striate, small pair of apical clypeal depressions ( Fig. 7 b). Malar area medially narrow, about 1/3 as long as width of mandible base, finely striate, matt. Antenna black, flagellum ventrally yellowish-brown ( Fig. 7 b). Mesosoma. Integument black. Mesoscutal disc impunctate, smooth and shiny ( Fig. 7 c). Mesoscutellum mostly impunctate, smooth and shiny; apically densely punctate ( Fig. 7 c). Mesoscutum, mesepisternum and propodeum densely covered with short light yellowish-brown, erect hairs ( Fig. 7 a, c). Wings. Slightly yellowish; wing venation light yellowish-brown. Legs. Integument reddish-brown, tarsi partly yellowishbrown. Vestiture whitish to yellowish-white, scopa white. Metasoma. Integument black to dark reddish-brown on medioapical part of discs, depressed apical tergal margins reddish to yellowish translucent ( Fig. 7 d). T1, except for a small medioapical area, almost completely covered with short appressed, yellowish-white hairs, apical tergal hair band broad; T2 with very broad basal hair band, glabrous disc about 2/3 as broad as broad apical tergal hair band; T3–T5 with broad apical and basal tergal hair bands; terga apically very slightly depressed ( Fig. 7 d). T1 densely and very finely punctate (i = 0.5–1d), smooth and shiny between punctures ( Fig. 7 d). Sterna with apical hair bands laterally broad, medially almost missing, sparse.

Male. Unknown.

Type material (2 specimens). Holotype, female, Chad: Tibesti, Zouar [16°31'E 20°27'N], 11.III.1953, K.M.

Guichard [ NHML]. Paratype: 1 ♀, Sudan, Gendettu [33°15'E 16°38'N], 4.III.1924, W.E. Giffard [ NHML]. Etymology. The name refers to the Tibesti Mountains in the eastern Sahara where the holotype specimen was

collected.

General distribution. Only known from the type localities in Chad and Sudan. Floral hosts. Unknown.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Colletes tibestensis Kuhlmann, sp. nov., female: a. specimen, lateral view; b. head; c. mesoscutum and mesoscutellum; d. metasomal terga 1 and 2. Scale bar: 1 mm.