Eufriesea theresiae ( Mocsáry, 1908 ), Mocsary, 1908

Nemésio, André, 2011, Description of the male Eufriesea theresiae (Mocsáry, 1908) (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Euglossina), with illustration of the holotype and comments on its geographic distribution, including a new record for the state of Pará, northern Brazil, Zootaxa 2762, pp. 63-68 : 65-66

Eufriesea theresiae ( Mocsáry, 1908)

Euglossa (Eumorpha) theresiae Mocsáry, 1908: 581

Male, with the following label data: “14563–42971”; “Santarém, PA, Brasil, 21/09/2003, Frota” and “ Eufriesea theresiae ( Mocsáry, 1908) , 3, det. A. Nemésio 2009 ” (deposited at UFMG).

General color and vestiture ( Fig. 3 A): Head and face entirely metallic green. Mesoscutum and scutellum plain green, covered with yellow (proximally) and black (distally) setae. T1–T3 plain green with short appressed yellow setae. T4–T7 golden green with strong golden hues, covered with long (0.75–1.00 mm long) yellow setae. Wings brownish.

Head ( Fig. 3 B): Width 5.9 mm; superior interorbital distance 2.5 mm; scape 1.7 mm; eye length 3.8 mm; tongue in repose reaching S1; labial palpus with four palpomeres, clypeus with a slight impunctated rigde.

Body: Body length ca. 16.0 mm; anterior wing ca. 13.0 mm; scutellum 4.3 mm wide and 1.9 mm long; metasomal width 6.5 mm.

Legs ( Fig. 3 C–D): Foretibia and forebasitarsus metallic green, fringed with long, dense yellow hairs; mesotibia inflated, anterior mesotibial tuft ca. 2/3 as long as the posterior tuft and occupying ca. of 1/3 of the area of the posterior tuft, mesotibial brush continuous with anterior tuft; metatibia plain green with hairy glandular scar reaching apex.

Punctation: Top of head with relatively sparse rounded punctures, denser and elongated on clypeus; rounded punctures of two sizes on mesoscutum (the larger ones three to four times larger than the smaller ones), punctation denser on proximal portion of mesoscutum and very sparse at the distal portion; on scutellum punctures also of two sizes, but the smaller ones are very minute compared to the larger ones; dense punctation on metasoma with small and rounded punctures; punctures large, rounded and sparse on metatibia.

Comparison with similar species (males): Eufriesea theresiae is very similar to E. fragrocara , which is at least partly sympatric with E. theresiae (both are potentially sympatric in the state of Amazonas, Brazil, and in Colombia and Ecuador—see Ramírez et al. 2002), but can be readily distinguished by the characters below:

Head. E. fragrocara presents a stronger and more uniform clypeal ridge than E. theresiae ; punctation on top of head is denser and punctures are smaller in E. fragrocara .

Body. Punctation on mesoscutum of E. fragrocara is denser and punctures are evenly distributed throughout and all have approximately the same size (as opposed to those on mesoscutum of E. theresiae , which are denser on the proximal portion and very sparse on the distal portion and consistently with two sizes); punctation on scutellum is also denser and punctures uniform in size in E. fragrocara , whereas in E. theresiae they are very sparse and present two very different sizes. In E. fragrocara , metasoma is bluish-green throughout, with sparse and short yellow setae on T1–T4, and sparse and long yellow setae on T5–T7. In E. theresiae metasoma is golden-green, with strong golden hues on T4–T7, and the long yellow setae are present from T4–T7. These long setae are also much denser in E. theresiae than in E. fragrocara .

Legs. The mesotibial anterior tuft of E. fragrocara is smaller than in E. theresiae and the mesotibial brush is not continuous to the anterior tuft, leaving a glabrous space between them (see Kimsey 1982: 106). In E. theresiae , the mesotibial anterior tuft is larger and continuous with mesotibial brush ( Fig. 3 C), as in E. violacea (see Kimsey 1982: 106, Nemésio 2009: 72). In E. fragrocara metatibia is predominantly bluish with dense rounded punctures, whereas in E. theresiae it is plainly green with sparser rounded punctures.

In Kimsey’s (1982) key for Eufriesea this male would reach dilemma 55, with two alternatives: Eufriesea caerulescens ( Lepeletier, 1841) and Eufriesea nigrescens ( Friese, 1923) . It can be readily distinguished from male E.

caerulescens by the presence of a brush in mesotibia (compare Fig. 3 C to Kimsey’s Fig. 35) and from male E. nigrescens by the metallic green general integument coloration (it is blackish in E. nigrescens ).

Figures

FIGURE 3. Male Eufriesea theresiae (Mocsáry, 1908) collected in Santarém, state of Pará, Brazil. A: Dorsal view. B: Frontal view of face. C: Ventral side of mesotibia. D: Metatibia.