Colletes aethiopicus Kuhlmann, sp. n.
Creators: name: Kuhlmann, Michael
name: Pauly, Alain
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Colletidae
Colletes
Colletes aethiopicus

description: Colletes aethiopicus Kuhlmann sp. n.
(Figs 6, 7)
Diagnosis. The affiliation of C. aethiopicus with a species-group is currently uncertain because the male is unknown. Provisionally it is placed in the C. rufitarsis species-group (see C. abessinicus). The female of C.
aethiopicus differs from all other species of the group by a mix of smaller and larger punctures on the disc of T 1 in combination with the intense oily bluish sheen of the terga (Fig. 6 d) (as in C. abessinicus but punctation much smaller and more dispersed (Fig. 1 d)) and very broad apical tergal hair bands (Fig. 6 a, d).
Description. Female. Bl = 10.0–11.0 mm. Head. Head wider than long. Integument black except part of mandible dark reddish-brown. Face except clypeus densely covered with long, yellowish to whitish-grey, erect hairs, vertex with few blackish hairs (Fig. 6 b). Clypeus without longitudinal median depression, supraclypeal area square and convex in profile. Clypeus coarsely and densely punctate (i = 0.5d); surface between punctures smooth and shiny (Fig. 6 b). Malar area medially about 1/3 as long as width of mandible base, finely striate. Antenna black. Mesosoma. Integument black. Mesoscutal disc between punctures densely shagreened and matt; disc sparsely punctate (i = 2.0–3.0d). Scutellum anteriorly impunctate with denser punctation apically, surface anteriorly smooth and shiny, apically shagreened and matt (Fig. 6 c). Mesoscutum, mesepisternum and propodeum covered with yellowish to orange-brown, erect hairs, on mesoscutum and scutellum intermixed with black hairs (Fig. 6 a, c). Wings. Slightly yellowish; wing venation dark brown. Legs. Integument of fore leg black, mid leg largely black with tibia apically and tarsal segments partly reddish-brown, hind leg almost completely orange-brown. Vestiture yellowish to greyish-white, scopa yellowish-white with a few blackish hairs dorsally at base. Metasoma. Integument black except depressed apical tergal margins reddish translucent; discs of T1–T3 with intense oilybluish sheen (Fig. 6 d). T1 anteriorly and laterally covered with short, appressed yellowish-brown hairs and entirely densely covered with long, erect yellowish-brown hairs; T2 with basal hair band and laterally covered with short, appressed yellowish-brown hairs; on discs of T3–T4 apically short, appressed hairs occur connecting with apical tergal hairbands; apical tergal hair band of T1 narrow, on the following terga very broad (Fig. 6 a, d). Terga densely and finely punctate (i <d), on T1 punctures are of different sizes, between punctures smooth and shiny (Fig. 6 d).
Male. Unknown.
Type material (6 specimens). Holotype, female, ETHIOPIA, Oromia, Senkele Nat. Park [38°16´20´´ E 7°11´52´´ N], 2011m, 17.ix.2012, A. Pauly, Ocimum urticifolium (RBINS).
Paratypes: 5 Ƥ, same dates as holotype (RBINS, RCMK).
Etymology. Named after Ethiopia, where this species was collected.
General distribution. Only known from the type locality in Ethiopia (Fig. 7).
Floral hosts. Ocimum urticifolium (Lamiaceae).
Seasonal activity (first–last observations). IX.
description: Published as part of Kuhlmann, Michael & Pauly, Alain, 2013, The bee genus Colletes Latreille 1802 in Ethiopia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Colletidae), pp. 267-292 in Zootaxa 3693 (2) on pages 273-275, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3693.2.9, http://zenodo.org/record/247793