Thorough biotic inventories are still needed even in families with paradigm organisms like Drosophilidae, including well-studied areas such as North America. This work presents a taxonomic revision of the species of the genus Amiota Loew in North America and the Nearctic portion of Mexico. Amiota steganoptera Malloch is currently excluded from the Nearctic and Amiota setigera Malloch is synonymized under Amiota humeralis Loew. Specimens of Amiota subtusradiata Duda were not encountered during this study along with its synonym Amiota quadrata Takada and Toda; however, based on previous descriptions we include A. subtusradiata in the Nearctic fauna. All other previously described species from the Nearctic are redescribed. Thirty-six species are described as
The abundant members of the Meliponini (stingless bees) are restricted to the tropics and subtropics worldwide. Because past studies of the anatomy of their mature larvae are limited, revealing little anatomical variation in the tribe, the current investigation attempts to examine this topic more thoroughly. Herein we describe the mature larvae of 30 species representing 16 genera of a total world fauna of perhaps 32 genera. Although the larvae of most taxa show little anatomical diversity, two species, Trigona (Duckeola) ghilianii Spinola and Trigona (Frieseomelitta) varia (Lepeletier), have mature larvae that differ remarkably in anatomical structure from those of other known stingless bees, and, further, their individual anatomies suggest a close evolutionary relationship. Larval evidence is presented indicating that Trichotrigona extranea (Camargo and Moure) is also related to these two taxa. Because eggs are often included in collections of bee larvae, this study adds descriptions of the eggs of 11 species of the Meliponini not previously characterized as well as a list of those that had been treated earlier.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.