A new species of Centris (Centris) (Fabricius) from northeastern Brazil, with taxonomic notes on C. (C.) pulchra Moure, Oliveira & Viana (Hymenoptera, Apidae)

Abstract

We describe a new species of the bee genus Centris, Centris (Centris) byrsonimae Mahlmann & Oliveira sp. n., whose name has appeared as a nomen nudum in the literature since 1985. Further, a new species group of Centris s.str. is proposed, the pulchra group, based on morphological characters, which comprises the species Centris pulchra Moure, Oliveira & Viana, 2003 and Centris byrsonimae sp. n..Based on information from specimen labels studied and data from the literature, a list of plant species visited by the pulchra group is presented. The male genitalia and hidden metasomal sterna 7 and 8 of Centris pulchra are described for the first time. Typographic errors pertaining to the paratype labels reported in the original description of Centris pulchra are corrected. One female paratype of Centris pulchra is designated herein as a paratype of Centris byrsonimae sp. n. An updated list of species of Centris s.str. from northeastern Brazil is provided including references about geographic distributions as well as an identification key to the pulchra species group.

Host records and cleptoparasitic behavior of the cuckoo bee Mesonychium asteria (Smith) (Apidae, Ericrocidini) in nests of Centris xanthomelaena Moure & Castro, (Apidae, Centridini)

“…For the genus Centris, only Centris (Centris) pulchra Moure, Oliveira and Viana, was reported as host of M. Asteria (Rocha-Filho et al, 2009). However, Mahlmann and Oliveira (2012) pointed to a possible error in the identification of M. Asteria in their study, which makes the present study unprecedented in the registration of M. Asteria as a nest cleptoparasite for the genus Centris. Further, the records of M. Asteria which indicated association with Epicharis nests, were based on indirect evidence of parasitism in nests of Epicharis nigrita (Friese) and Epicharis icolour Smith, (Gaglianone, 2005;Rocha-Filho et al, 2008), because there were not records of emergence of M. Asteria from these possible host bee brood cells.…”