Andrena (Aciandrena) karahisara WOOD, 2024, spec. nov.
Creators: name: WOOD, T. J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Andrenidae
Andrena
Andrena karahisara

description: Andrena (Aciandrena) karahisara spec. nov.
Figures 55A–F; 56A–F.
HOLOTYPE: TURKEY: Ürgüp [inferred 38.6419 oN, 34.8933 oE], 23.v.1972, ♂, leg. K. Warncke, OÖLM.
PARATYPES: TURKEY: same information as holotype, 10♂, 13♀, leg. K. Warncke, OÖLM/ TJWC; Altinekin, Konya, 28.v.1975, 1♂, 1♀, leg. K. Warncke, OÖLM; Yeşilhisar, 10.v.1975, 1♂, leg. K. Warncke, OÖLM; Yeşilhisar/ Kayseri, 25.v.1975, 2♂, 1♀, leg. K. Warncke, OÖLM.
Description: Female: Body length: 4.5– 5 mm (Figure 55A). Head: Dark, 1.15 times wider than long (Figure 55B). Clypeus weakly domed, irregularly punctate, punctures separated by 0.5–3 puncture diameters, underlying surface with strong uniform granular shagreen, weakly shining. Process of labrum narrowly trapezoidal, slightly wider than long, apical margin truncate, surface shining. Gena equalling width of compound eye; ocelloccipital distance ⅓ diameter of lateral ocellus. Foveae dorsally occupying ½ space between compound eye and lateral ocellus, ventrally narrowing, narrower than width of flagellum, separated from inner margin of compound eye by distance equal to its own ventral width; foveae filled with whitish hairs. Face, gena, vertex, and scape covered with short whitish hairs. Antennae basally dark, A4–12 ventrally lightened by presence of orange scales; A3 exceeding A4, subequal to A4+5.
Mesosoma: Scutum and scutellum with strong granular shagreen, weakly shining, irregularly punctate with small punctures, punctures separated by 0.5–4 puncture diameters (Figure 55C). Pronotum rounded. Mesepisternum and dorsolateral parts of propodeum with fine granular shagreen, shining. Propodeal triangle covered with slightly coarser granular shagreen, joining and merging with short raised rugae basally, surface weakly shining; propodeal triangle thus defined by change in surface sculpture (Figure 55D). Mesepisternum with moderately long whitish hairs, becoming shorter and sub-squamous on scutum and scutellum. Propodeal corbicula incomplete, dorsal fringe composed of long whitish plumose hairs, internal surface with scattered simple white hairs. Legs basally dark, tarsi and hind tibiae lightened orange, pubescence whitish to light brownish. Flocculus incomplete, composed of white plumose hairs; femoral and tibial scopae composed of white simple hairs. Hind tarsal claws without inner tooth. Wings hyaline, stigma and venation light orange, nervulus strongly antefurcal (Figure 55E).
Metasoma: Tergal discs dark, tergal margins lightened hyaline-yellow (Figure 55F). Tergal discs with strong granular microreticulation, sculpture strongest basally, dull, becoming weaker apically, here weakly shining; terga impunctate. Terga laterally with sparse erect white hairs, T2–4 apically with weak hairbands, widely separated on T2–3, complete on T4, not obscuring underlying surface. Apical fringe of T5 and hairs flanking pygidial plate golden-white. Pygidial plate narrow, rounded triangular, surface flattened, obscurely punctate, dull.
Male: Body length: 4.5– 5 mm (Figure 56A). Head: Dark, 1.15 times wider than long (Figure 56B). Clypeus almost entirely yellow-marked, markings not extending to absolute edge of clypeus, medially with two small black dots; surface weakly domed, irregularly punctate, punctures separated by 0.5–3 puncture diameters, underlying surface shagreened, weakly shining. Process of labrum rounded trapezoidal, 2 times wider than long, anterior margin emarginate. Gena subequal to width of compound eye; ocelloccipital distance subequal to diameter of lateral ocellus. Face, gena, vertex, and scale with white hairs, some exceeding length of scape. Antennae basally dark, A4–13 ventrally lightened by presence of orange scales; A3 exceeding A4, shorter than A4+5, A4 subquadrate, A5–13 slightly longer than wide.
Mesosoma: Mesosoma structurally as in female (Figures 56C–D), covered with white hairs, hind tibiae dark, tarsi lightened orange, hind tarsal claws with strong inner tooth.
Metasoma: Terga structurally as in female, though tergal margins slightly more distinctly depressed (Figure 56E). T6–7 with short whitish hairs overlying pygidial plate of T7. S8 short, apically broadened with truncate apex, ventrally covered by short whitish hairs. Genital capsule elongate, 1.5 times longer than wide, gonocoxae produced into long apically rounded teeth (Figure 56F). Gonostyli slightly broadened apically, spatulate, inner margins with clear bump on inner margins medially. Penis valves relatively narrow, basally slightly broadened, occupying ⅓ space between gonostyli, narrowing apically.
Diagnosis. Andrena karahisara can be recognised as an Aciandrena due to the small body size, propodeal triangle not defined by lateral carinae (Figure 55D), surface covered by fine granular shagreen, with weak and obscure rugae basally, facial foveae ventrally narrower than dorsally, supraclypeal and lower paraocular areas free of striations (Figure 55B), yellow male clypeus (Figure 56B), antefurcal nervulus (Figure 55E), genital capsule with produced gonocoxal teeth (Figure 56F), and the female hind tibial claws which lack an inner tooth. Females are extremely difficult to recognised, because they fall into the group of species around A. tenuis for which females are almost identical (most clearly also including A. aciculata and A. lamiana Warncke, 1965). Indeed, European material of A. aciculata was confused with A. tenuis for a long time (e.g. Stöckhert 1930), whereas true A. tenuis is restricted to eastern Turkey, the Caucasus, northern Iran, and Turkmenistan (Osytshnjuk et al. 2005). No female diagnosis is therefore given at the present time until molecular revision allows the identification of consistent characters to permit morphological separation of females of aciculata - karahisara - lamiana - tenuis. Female paratypes were accepted only based on association with males that were concurrently active at sampling sites.
Recognition is best made in males, specifically by using the male genital capsule. For A. aciculata, A. lamiana, and A. tenuis (Figure 56H), the genital capsule is compact, more or less as long as broad, whereas in A. karahisara the genital capsule is clearly elongate, 1.5 times longer than wide, and with the gonostyli showing a clear bump or kink on their internal margin medially (Figure 56F). This elongate genital capsule with a bump or kink on the internal margin of the gonostyli is closer to A. pulicaria Warncke, 1975, but this species has a clearly more elongate head, only 1.05 times wider than long. Andrena karahisara can also be separated from A. lamiana by the shape of S8 which slightly but distinctly broadens apically forming a truncate apical process (as in A. aciculata, and weakly so in A. tenuis), whereas in A. lamiana S8 is parallel sided and comes to a narrowly rounded point, the apical process therefore not presenting a broadened truncate apical process. Separation from A. aciculata can also be provisionally made by the colouration of the clypeus, as males of A. aciculata tend to have the yellow facial markings reduced so that they do not cover the entire clypeus (Figure 56G), where A. karahisara and A. tenuis have the clypeus entirely yellow marked (with the exception of two small black dots medially, see photographs in Astafurova et al. 2021). Finally, A. karahisara males may also be separable from A. tenuis based on the width of the head, since A. karahisara has the head 1.15 times wider than long (Figure 56B), in A. tenuis the head is 1.2–1.3 times wider than long (Figure 56G). Additional study using molecular markers is necessary to confirm that this is a consistent character.
Etymology. From the Turkish “ karahisar ” meaning “black castle”. This name was selected by Warncke, but was never published. It is a noun in apposition.
Distribution. Central Turkey (Kayseri, Konya, Nevşehir).
description: Published as part of WOOD, T. J., 2024, Further revisions to the Palaearctic Andrena fauna (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae), pp. 1-150 in Zootaxa 5483 (1) on pages 84-86, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5483.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/13209307