Morphometry of 53 stingless bees of the genus Lisotrigona collected from seven places in India by using 36 morphological parameters was studied. The data set also included morphometry data of primary types of L. cacciae, L. chandrai and L. revanai for comparison and was subjected to Factor and Canonical Discriminant analysis. All the bees collected from five places formed two distinct clusters in the Factor analysis and five clusters in Canonical Discriminant analysis. In both the methods of analysis primary types of L. cacciae, L. chandrai and L. revanai were placed well separated from each other as well as from other bees. The bees from seven places also differed from the three known species in morphometry and ratios of length and width of parts of the body. Based on these results it is concluded that Indian stingless bees of the genus Lisotrigona consists of more than one species besides L. cacciae. The action of synonymizing L. mohandasi, L. chandrai and L. revanai with L. cacciae appears arbitrary; these three species should be considered valid until supported by male genital morphology or molecular characters.
We describe five new species of
Tetragonula
namely,
Tetragonula vikrami
Viraktamath, sp. n. (from Karnataka),
T. sumae
Viraktamath, sp. n. (from Tamil Nadu),
T. ashishi
Viraktamath and Jagruti, sp. n. (from Maharashtra),
T. shishirae
Viraktamath sp. n. (from Rajasthan) and
T. shubhami
Viraktamath, sp. n. (from Chhattisgarh) with associated female and male bees. These new species are distinct in having robust penis valve. Besides,
T. sumae, T. ashishi, T. shishirae
and
T. shubhami
have robust gonostylus which is lamellate, broad and apically outwardly curved finger-like structure.
Tetragonula vikrami
resembles
T. iridipennis,
however
,
the five new species differ from the other known species of
Tetragonula
in morphometry, shape, size, and structure of gonostylus, penis valve and the structure of the sternum 5 and 6. The discovery of these five new species elevates the total number of stingless bee species to 22 and the number of species in the genus
Tetragonula
to 17 from India.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11756-022-01040-8.
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