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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Logan, Utah » Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #383114
Research Project: Sustainable Crop Production and Wildland Preservation through the Management, Systematics, and Conservation of a Diversity of Bees

Location: Pollinating Insect-Biology, Management, Systematics Research

Title: A new bee species of the subgenus Ceratina (Rhysoceratina) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from northernmost South America

Author
item FLOREZ-GOMEZ, NATHALIA - Universidad Nacional Autonoma De Mexico
item Griswold, Terry

Submitted to: Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/21/2020
Publication Date: 7/2/2020
Citation: Florez-Gomez, N.A., Griswold, T.L. 2020. A new bee species of the subgenus Ceratina (Rhysoceratina) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) from northernmost South America. Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2020.91.3062.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.22201/ib.20078706e.2020.91.3062

Interpretive Summary: The small carpenter bees (genus Ceratina) are found throughout the Americas with different groups of species found in South America than are present in North America. Little is known about the small carpenter bees of northern South America. Here a species new to science (Ceratina macondiana) is described from Colombia. It is of interest because it belongs to a group of species otherwise mostly found in the southern part of the continent.

Technical Abstract: The subgenus Ceratina (Rhysoceratina) Michener has been known largely from southern South America with a single species known from the Amazonian side of the Andes in Colombia. Here, we describe and illustrate females and males of a new species, Ceratina (Rhysoceratina) macondiana sp. n. It is apparently endemic to the Caribe Region of Colombia and Venezuela, extending the distribution range of Rhysoceratina to the extreme north of South America. Ceratina macondiana sp. n is easily separable from other Rhysoceratina species in both sexes by the color of the marginal cell, which is darker than the rest of the forewing and the dense white hairs on the lateral sides of the propodeum and posterior ridge of the scutellum.