First report of Monoeca Lepeletier & Serville in Argentina, with description of two new species (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

JUAN PABLO TORRETTA; ARTURO ROIG-ALSINA

Journal of Melittology

University of Kansas Libraries

Lugar: Kansas; Año: 2016 vol. 59 p. 1 - 12

2325-4467

Two new species of the oil-collecting bee genus Monoeca Lepeletier & Serville (Apidae: Tapinotaspidini) are described and figured from females and males captured in NE of Argentina. The two new species here described, Monoeca armata sp. n. and M. puchella sp. n., are easily distinguished from each other by the color of the integument, the wings and the pilosity. Their relationships to already described species of the genus are discussed. Monoeca was the only genus of Tapinostaspidini not known to occur in Argentina. The flower records and the study of the pollen scopal loads corroborate the association of these oil-collecting bees with plants of the family Malpighiaceae.