Słupskie Prace Biologiczne

Nr 16 ss. 151-154 2019

ISSN 1734-0926 Przyjęto: 18.11.2019 © Instytut Biologii i Nauk o Ziemi Akademii Pomorskiej w Słupsku Zaakceptowano: 14.12.2019

A NEW SPECIES CORNUTUS (FABRISIUS, 1787) (, ) FOR THE FAUNA OF BELARUS

Darya Khvir

Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus e-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

A new species of Lithurgus Berthold (Apidae, Megachilidae) is described from the East of Belarus, Lithurgus cornutus (Fabrisius, 1787). The species is distin- guished from other East Belarusian Megachilidae . Brief comments on the genus Lithurgus are provided.

Key words: Hymenoptera, Megachilidae, Lithurgus, fauna of Belarus

The genus Lithurgus Berthold, 1827 includes only 26 species (Michener 2007) and five of them inhabited in Western Palearctic (Banaszak and Romasenko 1998). They are xylobiotic bees because they usually make nests in dead dry often decayed wood (Michener 2007). Only one species of this genus Fonscolombe, 1834 are known in Belarus fauna until present study. One specimens of this species was caught on flowers of Centaurea scabiosa L. in Krichev city (Mogilev region) 29th of July 2018. catch by standard methods using an entomological sac. Identification of the species doing with the key of Euro- pean part of USSR which includes the family Megachilidae (Medvedev 1978). Pho- tomicrographs were prepared using Canon 1100D digital camera attached to microscope lens and employing the Xenon flash by author. L. cornutus on flowers of Asteraceae to get pollen and nectar like another species of genus Lithurgus . It should be noted, that L. cornutus (Photo 1) visits only purple color thistles and flowers according different revues (Malyshev 1930; Marikovskaya 1991; Westrich 1989).

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Photo 1. Dorsal, lateral and face view of Lithurgus cornutus (photo by D. Khvir)

152 It’s known that L. cornutus inhabit exclusively in high humidity biotopeswith availabilityof deadwood which the bees usefor making nests. The preference for purple flowers of Asteraceae limits its distribution so. Such habitat requirements may make this species rare in Belarusalthough the area of the species is quite wide – from Europe to Siberia (Proshchalykin, 2013). Therefore, additional studies are re- quiredfor more accurate determination of the status of this species in Belarus.

REFERENCES

Banaszak J., Romasenko L. 1998. Megachilid Bees of Europe (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Meg- achilidae). University Press of the Pedagogical University in Bydgoszcz, Bydgoszcz. Malyshev S. 1930. Nistgewohnheiten der Steinbienen, Lithurgus LATR. (Apoidea). J. Zeit- schrift für Morphologie und Ökologie der Tiere, 19: 116-134. Marikovskaya T.P. 1991. Ethological Peculiarities, Nest Structure, and Social Tendency in Lithurgus cornutus Fabr. (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae. Entomological Rev., 70 (8): 93-104. Medvedev G.S. 1978. The key for the in the European part of the USSR: in 5 v. T. 3: Hymenoptera. part 1. Science, Leningrad. Michener C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore. Proshchalykin M.Yu. 2013. The species-group names of bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Api- formes) described from Siberia. J. Euroasian Entomological, 4: 315-327. Westrich P. 1989. Die Wildbienen Baden-Württembergs. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart.

SUMMARY

New species of solitary bee Lithurgus cornutus (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae) is noted for the fauna of Belarus. It’s only second representative of genera in this terri- tory .

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