Andrena (Plastandrena) agilissima (Scopoli, 1770)

Wood, Thomas James, Praz, Christophe, Selis, Marco, Flaminio, Simone, Mei, Maurizio, Cornalba, Maurizio, Rosa, Paolo, Divelec, Romain Le & Michez, Denis, 2023, Revisions to the Andrena fauna of Italy, with the description of a new species (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), Fragmenta entomologica 55 (2), pp. 271-310 : 287

Andrena (Plastandrena) agilissima (Scopoli, 1770) , Andrena (Plastandrena) agilissima ssp. melanopyga Alfken, 1938 and Andrena (Plastandrena) agilissima ssp. italica Warncke, 1967

Remarks. The subgenus Plastandrena Hedicke, 1933 is taxonomically complex, and care must be taken when dealing with taxa within this grouping. Species can display enormous variation in the female sex, and are often only recognisable with confidence based on the male genital capsule. Moreover, genetic data based on barcoding is often in conflict with morphological results, producing paraphyletic lineages (e.g. Wood 2023a), necessitating the use of more powerful genetic tools. In this context, we take no position here on the status of the subspecies of A. agilissima described by Alfken (1938) from Sardinia and Warncke (1967) from central and southern Italy, respectively, retaining a broad A. agilissima species concept.