Micrandrena Ashmead, 1899

Wood, Thomas James, 2023, Revisions to the Andrena fauna of north-western Africa with a focus on Morocco (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), European Journal of Taxonomy 916 (1), pp. 1-85 : 6

Subgenus Micrandrena Ashmead, 1899

Genetic analysis of the COI gene identified three undescribed Micrandrena species in Morocco ( Fig. 3 ). The first is a species from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in south-western Morocco that is morphologically close to A. tenuistriata Pérez, 1895 but with more densely punctate terga. This species was strongly separated from A. tenuistriata by an average genetic distance of 10.79% (range 9.59–11.44%). Intraspecific variation was quite high at 4.00% (range 0.59–5.70%), as specimen WPATW726-22 (a male) was strongly divergent from specimens WPATW725-22 (a male) and WPATW724-22 (the holotype female). However, the two males were collected at the same site on the same day, and do not show any apparent morphological differences. Moreover, A. tenuistriata shows some level of intraspecific variation (2.16%; range 0.00–4.56%). As such, this genetic difference is not considered to represent anything more than variation. The holotype is designated from the female specimen and the species is described below as A. gemina sp. nov.

A second species was identified from the High Atlas that was also placed close to A. tenuistriata and A. gemina sp. nov., separated by 10.84% (range 10.06–11.55%) and 11.15% (range 10.24–11.58%), respectively. Morphologically it is close to A. pauxilla Stöckhert, 1935 as both species lack a gradulus at the base of the terga, but the two species were separated by an average of 11.32% (range 10.20–11.62%) and the new species displays consistently sparser punctures on the scutum; it is described below as A. tinctoria sp. nov.

Finally, Wood (2023) described A. ortizi Wood, 2023 from the Sierra Nevada mountains in southern Spain, and diagnosed it against A. atlantea Wood, 2021 from the High and Middle Atlas Mountains and an undescribed Micrandrena from the Middle Atlas. This latter taxon is described here as A. anammas sp. nov. As in Wood (2023), it is separated from A. atlantea (with which it can be found in sympatry) by an average genetic distance of 5.21% (range 5.13–5.28%) and from A. ortizi by an average genetic distance of 6.34% (range 6.31–6.38%). Andrena anammas and A. ortizi therefore each have strong bootstrap support of 100 and 98, respectively.

Figures

Fig. 3. Phylogenetic tree (maximum likelihood) of Andrena subgenus Micrandrena Ashmead, 1899 based on the mitochondrial COI gene. Numbers adjacent to branches represent bootstrap support (values of <75 are omitted).