Pseudoanthidium pictipes ( Morawitz, 1894 )

Kasparek, Max, 2021, The bee genus Pseudoanthidium: revision of the subgenus Exanthidium with the description of a new species (Apoidea: Megachilidae), Fragmenta entomologica 53 (2), pp. 333-346 : 341

Pseudoanthidium pictipes ( Morawitz, 1894)

Material. Holotype male, Darch, Tajikistan, 11 Aug 1898 (?) [date not clearly readable on label]. D. K. Glasunow leg. (fide Morawitz 1894) ( ZISP). Drawing of the apical tergum in Mavromoustakis (1954b). Examined by photographs.

The male is characterised by a long T7 with a deep, U-shaped emargination which is widened distally shortly before the apex. Lateral hook on T6 absent.

Male ( Fig. 11 ). 7 mm. Head: Head black with small postocular yellow spot; clypeus black; mandible yellow with three black teeth (transition zone reddish brown); face with long silvery hairs.

Mesosoma : Black with dense, long pubescence.

Metasoma: T1-T6 with yellow lateral bands nearly reaching the middle (according to Morawitz 1894, T1 with lateral bands, T2-T5 with continuous band attenuated in the middle); yellow bands attenuated inwards; T6 with crescent-shaped yellow maculation on both sides of the middle, bulging mediolaterally; T7 black, with deep V-shaped incision; incision with a shallow, step-like broadening in the outer third; S 3 with a set of long hairs with curved, hooked and waved apices (as in other species of the genus) ( Fig. 12 ); S 6 (not S 4 as in Morawitz 1894) convex and bilobed; legs black, femora with yellow apices and inner faces of tibiae and metatarsi yellow.

Popov (1950) mentioned that the male genitalia of this species are „aberrant” whereby he apparently meant that they are different from those of congeners, but without describing the differences. The holotype is dissected, but the male genitalia are not available for examination.

Female: Not known.

Distribution. Tajikistan ( Fig. 15 ). The only known locality “Darch” seems to be situated in Zeravshan (Serafschan) Valley in Panjakent District close to the border with Uzbekistan.

Remark: The species is erroneously assigned to Pseudoanthidium (Pseudoanthidium) in Discover Life ( Ascher & Pickering 2019).

Figures

Fig. 11 –Pseudoanthidium pictipes. Male holotype (ZISP).A, Habitus dorsal; B, Head in frontal view;C, Apical terga. Photographs:Y.Astafurova.

Fig. 12 – Pseudoanthidium pictipes. Specialised hairs with hooked apices on S3 of the male. Photograph: Y.Astafurova (ZISP).

Fig. 15 – Distribution of Pseudoanthidium deserticolum sp.n., P. enslini, P. pictipes, and P. wahrmanicum.