A new interpretation of the bee fossil Melitta willardi Cockerell (Hymenoptera, Melittidae) based on geometric morphometrics of the wing

Although bees are one of the major lineages of pollinators and are today quite diverse, few well-preserved fossils are available from which to establish the tempo of their diversification/extinction since the Early Cretaceous. Here we present a reassessment of the taxonomic affinities of Melitta wil...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inZooKeys Vol. 389; no. 389; pp. 35 - 48
Main Authors Dewulf, Alexandre, De Meulemeester, Thibaut, Dehon, Manuel, Engel, Michael S, Michez, Denis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers 01.01.2014
Subjects
Bees
Compression
Fossils
Genera
Macrobiotus willardi
Melittidae
Morphometry
New combinations
New genera
Pollinators
Species extinction
Zoology
Oligocene
wing shape
compression
Tertiary
Bees
geometric morphometrics
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Summary:Although bees are one of the major lineages of pollinators and are today quite diverse, few well-preserved fossils are available from which to establish the tempo of their diversification/extinction since the Early Cretaceous. Here we present a reassessment of the taxonomic affinities of Melitta willardiCockerell 1909, preserved as a compression fossil from the Florissant shales of Colorado, USA. Based on geometric morphometric wing shape analyses M. willardi cannot be confidently assigned to the genus Melitta Kirby (Anthophila, Melittidae). Instead, the species exhibits phenotypic affinity with the subfamily Andreninae (Anthophila, Andrenidae), but does not appear to belong to any of the known genera therein. Accordingly, we describe a new genus, Andrenopteryx gen. n., based on wing shape as well as additional morphological features and to accommodate M. willardi. The new combination Andrenopteryx willardi (Cockerell) is established.
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ISSN:1313-2989
1313-2970
DOI:10.3897/zookeys.389.7076