Checklists provide information about the species found in a defined region and serve as baselines for detecting species range expansions, contractions, or introductions. Bees are a diverse and important group of insect pollinators. Although some bee populations are declining, these patterns are difficult to document and generalize due to a lack of long-term studies for most localities. Documenting the diversity of wild bee communities is critical for assessing pollination services, community ecology, and geographical and temporal changes in distribution and density. Here, an updated checklist of the bees of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, USA, is presented. Since the first checklist was published (2010; 372 species), thousands of additional specimens from the state have been collected and databased, new species have been described in the region, and the taxonomic status of some species have changed. Specimen data from insect collections, databases, scientific literature, and unpublished records were compared to the original checklist. Seventy-nine new state species records – including 49 first-time reports – representing five of the six bee families in North America, were documented resulting in a total of at least 437 bee species reported from Pennsylvania. We highlight new county records and species persistence details. Our list includes a total of 23 exotic species and at least five species of conservation concern. Lists of species excluded from the state checklist and species anticipated to occur in Pennsylvania are also included. This checklist provides baseline data for researchers and the public. The benefits of insect collections, specimen databases, determination and voucher labels, and georeferencing to biodiversity studies and other aspects of biological research are also discussed.
The first part of this publication, written by a group of participants in Bee Course 2018, results from the discovery of three nests of Caupolicana yarrowi (Cresson, 1875) at the base of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeastern Arizona. The nests are deep with branching laterals that usually connect to large vertical brood cells by an upward turn before curving downward and attaching to the top of the chambers. This loop of the lateral thus seems to serve as a "sink trap," excluding rainwater from reaching open cells during provisioning. Although mature lar¬ vae had not yet developed, an egg of C. yarrowi was discovered floating on the provisions allowing an SEM examination of its chorion, the first such study for any egg of the Diphaglos
Here we describe the first and third instars and the egg of the New World chrysopid Abachrysa eureka (Banks). Like other members of the tribe Belonopterygini, this species is myrmecophilic. Comparisons of Abachrysa larval and egg characteristics with those reported from four other belonopterygine genera indicate that Abachrysa more closely resembles the Old World Calochrysa and Italochrysa than the New World Vieira and Nacarina. The three genera Abachrysa, Calochrysa and Italochrysa all have large eggs, accelerated embryonic development, and an elaborate set of morphological modifications for larval debris carrying, an important defense against ant attack. This pattern of shared features is consistent with the phylogenies recovered in recent molecular studies that place the New World genera Vieira and Nacarina basal to Abachrysa and the Old World genera. Our assessment of current morphological information in relation to the molecular studies indicates the following sequence: (i) The form of belonopterygine myrmecophily that is currently expressed in the basal lineages (Nacarina and perhaps Vieira) originated in the New World and does not involve elaborate larval modifications for debris carrying. (ii) Myrmecophily that is based on a correlated set of developmental and morphological traits subserving debris carrying evolved in the New World when Abachrysa diverged. (iii) Subsequently, the debris-carrying clade of Belonopterygini underwent a significant radiation in the Old World, but not in the New World.
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