Osmia (Pyrosmia) muelleri Rameshkumar and Sardar 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Sardar, Sayan
name: Kazmi, S. I.
name: Rameshkumar, A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Osmia
Osmia muelleri

description: Osmia (Pyrosmia) muelleri Rameshkumar and Sardar sp. nov.
Material examined: Holotype: 1♂, INDIA: Uttarakhand, Dehradun, Forest Research Institute, near Scientist Hostel, 30.3378°N, 78.0002°E, 10.iii.2022, Yellow Pan Trap, leg. S. Sardar, NZC.
Paratypes: 10♂♂, 3♀♀, INDIA: Uttarakhand, Dehradun, Forest Research Institute, near Scientist Hostel, 30.3378°N, 78.0002°E, 10.iii.2022, Yellow Pan Trap, leg. S. Sardar, NZC; 2 ♀, INDIA: Uttarakhand, Dehradun, Wildlife Institute of India, near pond, 30.2855°N, 77.9747°E, 05.iii.2022, Yellow Pan Trap, leg. S. Sardar, NZC.
Diagnosis: Osmia muelleri sp. nov. can be identified as Osmia (Pyrosmia) due to the metallic green integumental colouration; males bearing a trispinose T7, overlapped laterally by the large T6, S3 with fringed median emargination, S4 with carinate apical margin and S5 with velvety hair and females with 3–toothed mandible devoid of cutting edge, clypeal margin wavy with median impression and two tufts of orange hairs and hind coxa with weak longitudinal carina along the inner ventral margin. Both males and females of Osmia muelleri sp. nov. can clearly be distinguished from the eight Osmia (Pyrosmia) species distributed nearby in Central Asia and Tibet viz., O. cephalotes Morawitz, 1870, O. dilaticornis Morawitz, 1875, O. mongolica Morawitz, 1880, O. nana Morawitz, 1873, O. submicans Morawitz, 1870, O. viridana Morawitz, 1873; and O. tadjika Warncke, 1992 and O. tawildara Warncke, 1992 (known only from females) using a combination of characters. Males having pubescence entirely white (fulvous in O. mongolica, brown on vertex and mesosoma dorsally in O. submicans); integument metallic green (brown in O. mongolica); A4–A12 ventrally yellowish orange (black in O. cephalotes, O. mongolica, O. submicans, O. viridana and O. nana); vertex 1.5× ocellar width (3× in O. viridana) middle of the propodeum shiny (matte in O. submicans); hind tibial spurs yellow (black in O. dilaticornis); apical margin of T6 without emargination (emarginated in O. cephalotes); T7 with three flat, subequal and subparallel teeth (four teeth in O. nana, lateral teeth long and median tooth minute in O. viridana, teeth thin and pointed in O. submicans) and arranged in one plane (arranged in triangular fashion in O. cephalotes).
The females with pubescence entirely white (fulvous in O. mongolica, black on vertex and mesosoma dorsally in O. submicans); integument metallic green (brown in O. mongolica, blue in O. cephalotes, O. submicans, O. tadjika, O. tawildara); apical margin of clypeus transverse (arched in O. nana and O. tadjika, truncated in O. tawildara); hind tibial spurs yellow (dark in O. cephalotes, O. nana, O. tadjika, O. dilaticornis, O. tawildara) and scopa white (yellow in O. dilaticornis, black in O. submicans, basally white and apically black in O. cephalotes).
Description: Male: Body length 5.5–6.5 mm. Integument metallic green (Figs. 2a, b).
Head: Head about 0.87× as long as wide. Distance between lateral ocellus and preoccipital margin about 1.6× as long as ocellar diameter. Ocello-ocular distance 0.43 mm. Second segment of labial palpus about 1.5× as long as first segment. Maximal width of genal area about 0.61× as long as maximal width of compound eye. Vertex 1.5× ocellar width. Mandible bidentate, apical two-thirds black. Clypeus finely punctate, punctures smaller apically than basally; with a narrow polished impunctate, black apical zone; apical margin straight. Malar space linear. Face with rather long white pilosity, sparse on vertex and gena; vertex and face densely and coarsely punctate, two small unpunctured areas adjacent to lateral ocelli (Fig. 2c). A1 and A2 black, A3 basally black, apically brownish and almost as long as wide; A4–A12 ventrally yellowish orange, dorsally brown and longer than wide; A4 and A5 subequal, A6–A12 longer than wide; A13 entirely brown, longest almost twice the length of A1 (Fig. 2d), apically a little dilated, apicodorsally flattened with a polished tip (Figs. 2e, f).
Mesosoma: Scutum and scutellum densely punctured, interspaces reaching at most 0.5× puncture diameter. Punctation on mesepisternum similar to scutum.Metanotum with punctures scarce.Basal area of propodeum laterally shagreened, medially and apically polished. Pilosity of mesosoma white, sparse on dorsal surface of scutum and scutellum. Tegulae brown with fine dispersed punctures on apical half and along the margin. Wings hyaline, veins brown, second recurrent vein closer to apex than first is to base of second sub-marginal cell. Tibial spurs of hind legs yellow, inner spur little less than half length of hind basitarsus and straight except for the strongly bent apex. Hind basitarsus with golden hairs ventrally, medio and distitarsi black. Claws brownish black apically.
Metasoma: Punctation of tergal discs dense, with interspaces reaching the diameter of one and half puncture, sparser on marginal zones. Terga with whitish pilosity, sparse and erect on disc, long on lateral zone of T1, forming weak hair bands on marginal zones, laterally on T1–T3, complete on T4 and T5. Apical margin of T6 convex and transverse, without notch or crenulations. T7 trifid, projections subequal, sub-parallel and flat (Fig. 2e). S2 large, covering more than half of S3 (Fig. 2f). S3 with a distinct median fringed emargination (Fig. 3a). S4 with two apical carinae and a narrow hairless groove in between and a median weakly bilobed protrusion with a fringe of bristles (Fig. 3b). S5 with fine velvety hair (Fig. 3c). S6 prolonged to a median lobe (Fig. 3d). Apical margin of S7 strongly bilobed (Fig. 3e). S8 shield-like, apex hairy and weakly bilobed (Fig. 3f). Gonocoxites apically widened, gonostylus narrow, penis valve parallel sided, slightly dilated at the apex, volsella apically blunt and rounded (Figs. 3g, h).
Female: Body length 6–7 mm. Integument metallic green (Figs. 4a, b).
Head: Head about 0.91× as long as wide. Distance between lateral ocellus and preoccipital margin 1.6× as long as ocellar diameter. Ocello-ocular distance 0.46 mm. Second segment of labial palpus about 1.5× as long as first segment. Maximal width of genal area about 0.7× as long as maximal width of compound eye. Punctation of vertex, frons, supraclypeal area and paraocular area fine and dense, interspaces almost linear. Punctation of clypeus nearly rugose apically behind the narrow, polished, impunctate apical zone (Fig. 4c). Mandible distinctly tridentate without cutting edge (Fig. 4d). Clypeus overhanging labrum, apical margin wavy with two tufts of inwardly directed orange hairs. Frons with an obscure longitudinal line. Malar space linear. Face with pale whitish pilosity, dense on paraocular region. Juxtantennal carina restricted adjacent to antennal socket. A1–A4 blackish brown, A5–A11 ventrally brownish orange, dorsally brown, A12 brown; A3 almost twice as long as segment 4 (1.8×), A5 and A6 subequal (Fig. 4e), A12 1.75× as long as wide.
Mesosoma: Punctation of scutum fine but less dense, distance between punctures 1.5× puncture diameter. Punctation of mesepisternum fine and dense, almost appearing rugose. Metanotum with scattered punctation. Basal area of propodeum medially and laterally shagreened, apically polished. Pilosity of mesosoma white, sparse on dorsal surface of scutum and scutellum,hairs scattered. Tegulae brown with fine dispersed punctures on apical half and along the margin. Wings hyaline, veins brown, second recurrent vein closer to apex than first is to base of second sub-marginal cell. Hind coxa ventrally with weak longitudinal carina along inner margin (Fig. 4f). Tibial spurs of hind legs yellow, inner spur half length of hind basitarsus and straight except for the strongly bent apex. Tarsi with golden hairs ventrally. Claws brown.
Metasoma: Punctation of tergal discs fine and dense, interspaces reaching diameter of one puncture, marginal zones slightly less densely punctured with interspaces reaching diameter of two puncture widths. T1–T5 with whitish pilosity, which is erect on disc and forming rather long fringe of white hairs laterally; anterior edge of T1 with a row of white hairs becoming denser laterally. T1–T3 with hair band on marginal zone incomplete, present only laterally (Fig. 4g), hair bands complete on marginal zone of T4 and T5. T6 with appressed pilosity on apical half, covering the cuticular surface (Fig. 4h). Scopa white.
Variation: Some males have a purplish tinge on vertex, scutellum, metanotum and propodeum.
Etymology: The species name has been dedicated to Dr. Andreas Müller (ETH Zurich, Switzerland) for his contribution to the taxonomy and ecology of osmiine bees across the world.
description: Published as part of Sardar, Sayan, Kazmi, S. I. & Rameshkumar, A., 2024, First report of Osmia (Pyrosmia) Tkalců from India with description of a new species and redescription of Osmia gulmargensis Nurse, pp. 186-196 in Zootaxa 5551 (1) on pages 188-193, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5551.1.9, http://zenodo.org/record/14390264