Notes on Papuasian and Malesian stingless bees, with the descriptions of new taxa (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Abstract

Two new species of the stingless bee genus Heterotrigona Schwarz (Apinae: Meliponini) are described and figured from Papua New Guinea: Heterotrigona (Sahulotrigona) tricholoma Engel, new species, lighter individuals of which superficially resemble the larger H. (Platytrigona) lamingtonia (Cockerell) and H. (P.) keyensis (Friese), and H. (S.) taraxis Engel, new species, a taxon generally misidentified as “Trigona atricornis Smith”. The western Malesian (Borneo) species H. hobbyi (Schwarz) is removed to Borneotrigona Engel, new subgenus, and distinguished from the otherwise eastern Platytrigona Moure, which occur in eastern Wallacea (east of Weber’s line) and Papuasia. The historically misidentified T. atricornis is a senior synonym of T. genalis Friese (new synonymy), the latter type species for the genus Papuatrigona Michener & Sakagami, resulting in the following nomenclatural change: Papuatrigona atricornis (Smith), new combination. Flavotetragonula Shanas is placed as a new synonym of Tetragonula Moure s.str. (new synonymy).

Stingless bees in Miocene amber of southeastern China (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…While some chose to retain most of Moure's groups within Trigona (e.g., Michener, 1990Michener, , 2007, gradually an augmented version of his system has become adopted (e.g., Michener, 2013;Engel Journal of Melittology 16 No. 105 et al, 2018;Engel, 2019;Grüter, 2020;Melo, 2021;herein) and is followed herein. The classification of the tribe can be outlined as follows ( This clade comprises all extant Eastern Hemisphere stingless bees.…”

“…Given that not every measurement was possible from every specimen, values are taken from the entire series of individuals. Morphological terminology largely follows that of Engel (2001a), Michener (2007), and , with the overall format used for the descriptions modified from those of Moure (1961), , , and Engel (2019). The only changes in terminology employed here are: Fundus: That portion of the metatibia proximal to the corbicula, differentiated by the convexity of the surface, or at least more flattened, relative to the variously concave surface of the corbicula, as well as changes in surface sculpturing (often more noticeably sculptured in comparison to the polished surface of the corbicula) and pilosity (more densely covered with surface setae) (Figs.…”

Notes on the stingless bee genera <i>Scaura</i> and <i>Geotrigona</i> (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…Recent changes to the supraspecific classification of stingless bees have attempted to improve the systems initially put forward by Moure (1951Moure ( , 1961 and Michener (1990Michener ( , 2007) (e.g., Rasmussen et al, 2017;Engel, 2019;Engel et al, 2021). Here two new names are established for subgeneric groups of New World stingless bees.…”

Diversity, Nest Preferences, and Forage Plants of Stingless Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) from West Halmahera, North Moluccas, Indonesia

“…There is, however, a considerable geographic bias in our understanding of stingless bee diversity, nesting biology, floral associations, and management practices, with most information deriving from a subset of species from the western islands (Engel et al 2018). The distribution and biology of species across the eastern islands, particularly those of the Moluccas, eastern Lesser Sunda islands, West Papua, and Papua, remain poorly documented (Engel 2019).…”

“…Within the area there is considerable availability and access to an array of floral sources (crop fields, horticultural plants, plantation, as well as the native forest), and these produce nectar, pollen, as well as resins used by the bees. Sampling of bees across the Moluccas has been exceptionally poor and remains one of the highest priority regions for study, and where there are exceedingly few records for stingless bees (e.g., Rasmussen 2008;Engel 2019). Tetragonula clypearis (Friese) was recorded from Ambon, but also is well known from New Guinea and Australia (Dollin et al 1997;Rasmussen 2008); and sundry records exist for T. sapiens (Cockerell) and T. laeviceps (Smith) .…”