Andrena remota Pisanty & Wood 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Pisanty, Gideon
name: Wood, Thomas James
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Andrenidae
Andrena
Andrena remota

description: Andrena (incertae sedis) remota Wood sp. nov.
(Figs. 59–64)
Female (Fig. 62).
Body length: 12–13 mm.
Colour. Body predominantly dark; terga 1–4 with apical margins and ventrolateral segments broadly lightened hyaline-orange, tergum 5 entirely orange (Figs. 60, 62, 63). Legs with apical tarsal segments of fore and mid legs and hind tibiae and tarsi lightened bright orange (Figs. 62, 63). Flagellomeres 4–12 ventrally lightened by presence of grey-brown scales (Figs. 61, 62). Wings hyaline to weakly infuscate, veins and stigma dark brown (Fig. 62).
Pubescence. Head with moderately long minutely plumose hairs, hairs pale on gena, clypeus, and around antennal insertions, becoming dark brown on paraocular areas, frons, and vertex (Figs. 59, 61, 62). Mesosoma with long minutely plumose hairs, hairs of mesepisternum, propodeum, metanotum, posterior margin of scutellum, and anterior margin of scutum white, remaining hairs of scutum and scutellum black (Figs. 59, 62, 64). Metasoma with scattered short golden hairs on tergal discs, sterna with pale to golden plumose hairs forming long fringes on marginal areas. Terminal fringe orange to orange-brown (Figs. 60, 62, 63). Facial foveae with very dense short dark brown hair (Figs. 59, 61). Propodeal corbicula incomplete, dorsoposterior fringe composed of moderately long finely plumose white hairs, corbicula surface scattered short whitish hairs (Fig. 62). Legs with variable pubescence; fore and mid femora with whitish to light brownish hairs, outer surface of fore and mid tibiae with short dark brown pubescence, fore and mid tarsi with dense fringes of bristles, anteriorly orange, posteriorly dark brown (Figs. 62, 63). Flocculus poorly developed, incomplete, pure white. Femoral and tibial scopae composed of simple, relatively thick sparse hairs, femoral scopae whitish, tibial scopae becoming more golden, dorsally with dark brown hairs as basitibial plate (Figs. 62, 63).
Head (Figs. 59, 61, 62). 1.1 times broader than long (Fig. 61). Mandible bidentate. Galea finely shagreened, moderately shining. Labral process rounded rectangular, 3.5 times wider than long, surface with weak latitudinal wrinkles, weakly shining, anterior margin broadly but shallowly emarginate. Clypeus domed, medially slightly flattened, this appearing slightly 3-faced; underlying surface polished and shining, with only weak shagreen laterally; punctation deep but irregular, punctures separated by 0.5–2 puncture diameters, punctures of variable size, forming slightly raised impunctate longitudinal mid-line. Lower half of paraocular areas shagreened and very densely punctate, weakly shining (Fig. 61). Malar area linear (Figs. 61, 62). Supraclypeal area weakly domed, shagreened and weakly shining. Facial foveae moderately long, dorsally occupying ½ space between lateral ocellus and compound eye, separated from lateral ocellus by 1.5 times its diameter; foveae deeply impressed, slightly broadening medially before narrowing ventrally, ventrally extending only to lower margin of antennal insertions, at broadest clearly exceeding width of flagellum; separated from compound eye by narrow shiny cuticular strip (Figs. 59, 61). Flagellomere 1 equaling length of 2+3+4. Frons shagreened, weakly shining, densely but finely punctate (Fig. 61). Vertex immediately behind lateral ocelli very weakly shagreened, almost shining, otherwise shagreened and weakly shining; weakly sculptured areas posterolateral to the lateral ocelli impunctate, forming shining strips. Ocelloccipital distance 1.5 times diameter of lateral ocellus (Figs. 59, 61). Genal area subequal to diameter of compound eye, posterior margin rounded.
Mesosoma (Figs. 59, 64). Dorsolateral angle of pronotum weakly but distinctly elevated, lateral carina absent. Scutum and scutellum weakly shagreened, more or less shining, deeply and densely punctate, punctures separated by <0.5–1 puncture diameter (Fig. 59). Mesepisternum shagreened, surface with shallow punctures, punctures separated by 1 puncture diameter. Propodeum finely shagreened, dorsolateral parts shallowly punctate, propodeal triangle delineated by finely raised rim; entire surface weakly shining (Fig. 64). Inner side of hind femur not carinate. Inner hind tibial spur not broadened basally, straight, slightly curved near apex. Hind pretarsal claw with strong inner tooth. Stigma slender. Submarginal cross vein 1 meets marginal cell 8 vein widths from stigma. Recurrent vein 1 meets second submarginal cell slightly beyond its middle (Fig. 62). Nervulus strongly postfurcal.
Metasoma (Figs. 60, 62, 63). Tergal discs finely shagreened, weakly shining, surface with scattered irregular punctures, punctures separated by 1–3 puncture diameters. Marginal areas not depressed, sculpture not differentiated from tergal discs (Figs. 60, 63). Pygidial plate with strongly raised longitudinal ridge medially, remaining surface otherwise featureless, shagreened and dull.
Male. Unknown.
Diagnosis. Andrena remota is surprisingly similar to members of the subgenus A. (Warnckandrena), in large part due to the largely finely shagreened propodeum which lacks a clear horizontal basal area, the compound eyes which slightly converge dorsally, the deeply impressed facial foveae which are separated from the compound eyes by a narrow slightly elevated shining strip, the broad process of the labrum, the pronotum with a weak angle, flagellomere 1 equaling the length of flagellomeres 2+3+4, the slender stigma, the moderately large body size (for an Andrena), and the lack of any other distinctive characters.
However, unlike Warnckandrena, Andrena remota has the scutum and scutellum with shallow but distinct and dense punctation that clearly contrasts the underlying surface which is shagreened and shining (Fig. 59; Warnckandrena has the scutum and scutellum largely shagreened and dull with superficial punctation that disappears into the background sculpture, Fig. 2), the mesepisternum has shallow but distinct punctures, surface weakly shining (Warnckandrena has the mesepisternum shagreened and almost dull, with obscure punctures), the nervulus is strongly postfurcal (interstitial to antefurcal in Warnckandrena), the tergal punctation is irregular and scattered, punctures separated by 1–3 puncture diameters (Fig. 60; Warnckandrena has the tergal punctation fine and regular, typically separated by around 1 puncture diameter, Fig. 3), the pygidial plate with clear elevated longitudinal ridge medially (Warnckandrena has the pygidial plate flat over its entire surface), and the marginal areas and lateral parts of the terga are broadly lightened hyaline-orange (Figs. 60, 62, 63; Warnckandrena has the terga almost entirely dark, at most with the apical rims narrowly lightened hyaline-brown, Figs. 3, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16).
Separation from Andrena (Melittoides) sensu stricto can be made by some of the same characters; A. remota has the scutum and scutellum with shallow but distinct and dense punctation that clearly contrasts the underlying surface which is shagreened and shining (Fig. 59; A. melittoides has the scutum and scutellum finely shagreened and shining with extremely shallow and obscure punctures), by the longer ocelloccipital distance that is 1.5 times the diameter of a lateral ocellus (A. melittoides has the ocelloccipital distance slightly but distinctly shorter than the diameter of a lateral ocellus), by the pygidial plate with clear elevated longitudinal ridge medially (A. melittoides has the pygidial plate flat over its entire surface), by the colouration of the terga which in dorsal view have reddish-yellow markings restricted to the tergal margins, including the margins of T3–4 which are clearly lightened hyaline-orange (Figs. 60, 62, 63; A. melittoides has abundant reddish-yellow markings on the discs of T1–2, with tergal margins of T3–4 only faintly lightened hyaline-whitish, Fig. 65), and by the smaller body size of 12–13 mm (A. melittoides has a body length of 16–17 mm).
Distribution: Central China (Gansu).
Flight period: June.
Flower records: None.
Pollen preferences: Unknown.
Genetic sequences available: UCE data will be made public following future publications.
HOLOTYPE: CHINA • ♀; Kansu mer. [Gansu], Xiahe Labrang [Labrang Monastery]; 35.1984° N, 102.5098° E; 3300–3700 m a.s.l.; 1–15 Jun. 1998; V. Major leg.; OLML.— PARATYPE: CHINA • 1♀; ibid.; OLML.
Etymology. Feminine singular nominative form of the Latin adjective remotus meaning distant or remote, in reference to the strong separation between the true members of the subgenus Warnckandrena with an eastern limit in northern Iran, and A. remota which is currently known from 4,000 km further east in Central China.
Remarks. In a preliminary molecular phylogenetic analysis of ultraconserved element (UCE)data, A.remota was placed within the most basal clade of Andrena, as sister to A. curiosa + A. ramlehiana, i.e. the Warnckandrena clade (corresponding to clade 2 of Andrena in Pisanty et al. 2022; S. Bossert, M. Branstetter and the authors, unpublished results). However, though it is clearly related to Warnckandrena, A. remota displays several morphological characters that differ markedly from typical members of the subgenus, and it also occurs 4,000 km outside of its geographical range, deep in the Eastern Palaearctic realm. Further phylogenetic analysis, as well as more sampling in Central China (including the collection of males and possible related species) are needed to assess the subgeneric position of this taxon. If A. remota is indeed confirmed as the sister group to Warnckandrena in the strict sense, it may merit erection of a separate subgenus. For now, we leave A. remota as incertae sedis, pending further study.
description: Published as part of Pisanty, Gideon & Wood, Thomas James, 2024, The early-diverging subgenera of the bee genus Andrena (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae) in the Old World, pp. 451-488 in Zootaxa 5474 (5) on pages 468-471, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5474.5.1, http://zenodo.org/record/12712066