Melecta albifrons albovaria Erichson

ROZEN, JEROME G. & ÖZBEK, HIKMET, 2003, Oocytes, Eggs, and Ovarioles of Some Long-Tongued Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), American Museum Novitates 3393, pp. 1-36 : 22

Melecta albifrons albovaria Erichson

MATURE OOCYTE (figs. 52, 54, 55): Length 2.80–3.35 mm; maximum diameter 0.55– 0.65 mm; egg index 0.59 (small). Shape (fig. 52) elongate, approximately symmetrical around moderately curved long axis; anterior end broadly rounded; middle part nearly parallel­sided, gradually tapering in posterior quarter; posterior end rounded; micropyle not evident under stereoscopic examination; un­ der SEM examination, micropyle not viewed but area around it with elongate polygons directed toward it, these polygons with incised borders. Chorion under stereoscopic examination smooth, semi­opaque, dull, very thin, and lacking sculpturing and other ornamentation; under SEM examination, surface of at least most of chorion covered with faint polygonal pattern (fig. 55) except this pattern more evident at anterior pole (fig. 54); under high magnification, chorion carpeted with truncated fibrous projections (much as in figs. 58, 64); at extreme posterior end of oocyte (not visible in fig. 55), polygonal pattern not evident and projections becoming more elongate and less truncated (much as in figs. 63, 65).

MATERIAL STUDIED: Two females, Turkey: Erzurum: 22 km WSW Oltu, VII­02–2001 (J.G. Rozen) flying in front of vertical bank; one female, same except VI­23–2001.

REMARKS: Michael S. Engel, University of Kansas, kindly identified the adults of this species .

The follicular tissue was difficult to remove from the oocytes of this species and all other melectines examined in this study. For this reason, we were unable to examine the micropylar region of Melecta albifrons albovaria . The change in chorionic microstructure at the extreme posterior end may somehow relate to the mechanism of attachment of the egg to the cell closure.