Colletes hedini Kuhlmann, 2002

Ferrari, R. R., Onuferko, T. M. & Zhu, C. D., 2021, Description of a gynander of Colletes hedini (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) from the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, China: the first record of gynandromorphism for the genus after 30 years, Far Eastern Entomologist 440, pp. 1-12 : 4-10

Colletes hedini Kuhlmann, 2002

Figs 1 A-D, 2A-B, 3A-D

MATERIAL EXAMINED. China: Xizang, Saga County, G 219 road, 29º26.096 N

85º13.338 E, 4700m, 21.VII.2018, 1 gynander, leg. QT Whu [ IZCAS] .

view, with mostly male features; B – left side of the body, lateral view, with mostly female features; C – head, frontal view, showing the right and left sides of the face with mostly male and females features, respectively; D – metasoma, posterodorsal view, showing the right and left sides of the terga with male and females features, respectively. Scale bars – 1 mm.

DIAGNOSIS. The gynander described below exhibits entirely unmodified male terminalia ( Fig. 3 A-C), enabling us to confidently diagnose it as belonging to C.

hedini within the C. clypearis Morawitz group. Both the gonostylus and S7 of the male of C. hedini can potentially be confused with those of C. fulvicornis Noskiewicz,

1936 ( Fig. 4 A-D), which also belongs to the C. clypearis group. However, in C.

hedini the gonostylus ( Fig. 3B ) is comparatively broader basally (nearly as broad as the apex of the gonocoxa) and abruptly narrowed apically (the gonostylus has a relatively narrow base and is more gradually narrowed towards the apex in C. fulvicornis

( Fig. 4C )); and S7 ( Fig. 3C ) has a relatively broad and densely hairy patch (S7 has a much narrower and more sparsely hairy patch in C. fulvicornis ( Fig. 4D )).

DESCRIPTION. Gynander. Measurements: Approximate body length 6.8 mm;

head length 2.2 mm; head width 2.6 mm; upper interocular distance 1.7 mm; lower interocular distance 1.6 mm; intertegular distance 2.1 mm.

Head: Right and left sides with male- and female-specific features ( Fig. 1C ), respectively (except malar areas (each as long as basal width of mandible), mandibles and labrum as in females). Right side of face with very long, suberect, off-white hairs below; clypeal and supraclypeal punctures crowded/contiguous (interspaces virtually absent); antenna with relatively short scape (0.5 mm) and 11

flagellomeres; facial fovea with length 3.6 × its maximum width. Left side of face with long, erect, pale yellow hairs below; clypeus and supraclypeal area more sparsely punctate (i=1–2d); antenna with relatively long scape (0.7 mm) and 10

flagellomeres; facial fovea with length 2.4 × its maximum width.

Mesosoma: Right and left sides as in males and females, respectively. Right side of mesosoma ( Fig. 1A ) with long pale-yellow hairs (except mesepisternum with off-white hairs); tegula dark brown; forewing length 6.1 mm; propodeum laterally with punctures difficult to discern from the overall coarsely corrugated integument. Left side of mesosoma ( Fig. 1B ) with moderately long bright-yellow hairs (except pro-

notal lobe with short hairs and mesepisternum with pale-yellow hairs); tegula pale brown; forewing length 6.5 mm; propodeum laterally with sparse minute punctures and imbricate interspaces.

Legs: Right and left legs as in males and females, respectively. Right legs with moderately long, erect, mostly off-white setae dorsally and very long, erect, offwhite plumose hairs ventrally; hind tibia without scopa ( Fig. 2A ); hind basitarsus

4.0 × as long as broad. Left legs with relatively short, suberect, mostly pale-yellow setae dorsally and long, erect, off-white plumose hairs ventrally; scopa with very long, suberect, pale-yellow apically-branched hairs ( Fig. 2B ); hind basitarsus 3.0 ×

as long as broad.

metasoma, ventral view, showing the right and left sides of the sterna with male and female features, respectively; B – male genital capsule, lateral view; C – male S7, ventral view; D –

male S8, ventral view. Scale bars – 1 mm.

Metasoma: Metasomal terga as in males ( Fig. 1D ); T1 apical band broadly interrupted medially, disc with punctures fine and moderately dense (i=0.5–1d); T2

without basal band; T2–T6 with distinct apical bands; T7 fully exposed. Right and left sides of metasomal sterna as in males and females, respectively ( Fig. 3A ); S1

with moderately long off-white hairs on right side; hairs pale-yellow and somewhat shorter on left side; S2–S5 each with semilunar patch of appressed minute setae posteromedially and line of suberect plumose hairs apically on right side; patches and lines absent on left side; S6 with erect dense setae on right side, equivalent setae suberect and somewhat sparser on left side. Male genital capsule, S7 and S8

as in Fig. 3B , Fig. 3C and Fig. 3D , respectively.

genital capsule, lateral view; D – S7, ventral view. Scale bars – 1 mm.

REMARKS. In addition to the marked differences in the male S7 and genitalia, C.

hedini and C. fulvicornis may be separated from one another by geography, with the latter having its distribution core in central Mongolia, with only a few scattered records in northern China (Kuhlmann, 2009; Kuhlmann & Proshchalykin, 2011;

Ascher & Pickering, 2021). On the other hand, C. hedini has been shown to be endemic to, although one of the most common species of the genus in, Tibet ( Ferrari et al., 2021), where the gynander was collected.

MOLECULAR INFERENCE. We successfully amplified and sequenced the barcode region of the COI gene of the gynander described herein, and the obtained

630 bp DNA barcode was made publicly available on GenBank (accession code

MZ567014 ; see also Table 1).

of the gynander of Colletes hedini (red dashed-line rectangle) described in this paper. Scale bar represents pairwise distance.

sequenced by Ferrari et al. (2021) and used to generate the NJ tree constructed by us and shown in Fig. 5 . The DNA barcode of the C. hedini gynander generated for the purpose of the present paper is marked in boldface

The NJ tree ( Fig. 5 ) placed the gynander deep within the C. hedini cluster and thus confirmed our identification established through morphological study. Its barcode showed little divergence (0.2–0.9%) from sequences of other barcoded individuals of C. hedini .

Figures

Fig. 1. Habitus of the gynander of Colletes hedini. A – right side of the body, lateral

Fig. 3. Metasomal sterna and male terminalia of the gynander of Colletes hedini. A –

Fig. 4. Male of Colletes fulvicornis. A – habitus, lateral view; B – head, frontal view; C –

Fig. 2. Meso- and metatibiae, anterior view, of the gynander of Colletes hedini. A – male-like tibia on the right side; B – female-like tibia on the left side. Scale bars – 1 mm.

Fig. 5. Neighbor-joining tree based on DNA barcode sequence data showing the placement