Colletes laevigena Noskiewicz, 1936

Ferrari, Rafael R., Niu, Ze-Qing, Kuhlmann, Michael, Zhang, Dan & Zhu, Chao- Dong, 2021, The cellophane bees of Colletes Latreille (Hymenoptera: Colletidae) from Xizang (Tibet), China, Zootaxa 5022 (1), pp. 1-72 : 41

Colletes laevigena Noskiewicz, 1936

( Figs 24C , 26A–F , 47B )

Colletes laevigena Noskiewicz, 1936: 368 (syntypes ♀ and ♂: Himalayas [ZMB]).

Colletes laevigena ; Kuhlmann 2000: 177, 2003a: 890; Niu et al. 2014b: 463 ; Ascher & Pickering 2021.

Diagnosis. The following set of features may be used to diagnose females of C. laevigena among the Tibetan Colletes : malar area as long as basal width of mandible, mesoscutal black hairs present and hind basitarsus with dark setae. Males are diagnosable through the combination of malar area 1.5× as long as basal width of mandible, paraocular area without black hairs and metasoma with well-defined apical bands. Colletes laevigena most closely resembles C. pseudolaevigena , but their females can be differentiated by the clypeus without groove in the former (clypeus with a longitudinal groove in the latter) and the hind basitarsus with dark setae in the former (hind basitarsus with pale setae in the latter). Males of C. laevigena are distinct in having the hind basitarsus 5.0× (hind basitarsus 4.0× as long as broad in C. pseudolaevigena ) and the gonostylus 2.0× as long as its basal width in C. laevigena (gonostylus as long as its basal width in C. pseudolaevigena ).

Material examined. Published records — CHINA, Xizang: Zêtang , 29.02 91.70, 3553 m, 22.vi.1981, TL Chen, 1 ♂ .

New records — CHINA, Xizang: Gar County, Road G 219 km 1053, 4557 m, 27.vii.2018, QT Wu, 1 ♀ 3 ♂ .

Distribution. Western China (Xizang) and northwestern India (Jammu and Kashmir).

DNA barcode. Available (1 ♀). See also Fig. 1 and Table 1.

Floral hosts. Unknown.

Remarks. Colletes laevigena has been a rarely collected species, which renders the barcode sequence provided herein of particular relevance.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Neighbor-joining tree based on the barcode data of the sequenced specimens of Colletes. Further information on the voucher codes shown on the tree can be found in Table 1.

FIGURE 24. Confirmed geographic records of the Colletes species found in Xizang based on the examined material. (A) C. xuechengensis; (B) C. annapurnensis; (C) C. laevigena; (D) C. linzhiensis.

FIGURE 26. Colletes laevigena Noskiewicz, 1936. Female: (A) habitus, lateral view; (C) face, frontal view. Male: (B) habitus, lateral view; (D) face, frontal view; (E) genital capsule, lateral view; (F) S7, ventral view. Scale bars: (A–D) 2 mm; (E, F) 1

FIGURE 47. Anteroventral view of head: (A) clypeus densely punctate below in the female Colletes harreri; (B) clypeus sparsely punctate below in the female C. laevigena. Dorsal view of metasoma: (C) T1 with subappressed short hairs anteriorly and a pale-yellow marginal zone in the female C. collaris; (D) T1 without subappressed hairs anteriorly and with a dark-brown marginal zone in the female C. linzhiensis. Scale bars: 1 mm.