A peer-reviewed open-access journal ZooKeys 428: 29–40A new (2014) species of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Thyreus from northern Yemen... 29 doi: 10.3897/zookeys.428.7821 RESEARCH ARTICLE www.zookeys.org Launched to accelerate biodiversity research A new species of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Thyreus from northern Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia (Hymenoptera, Apidae) Abdulaziz S. Alqarni1, Mohammed A. Hannan1,2, Michael S. Engel3 1 Department of Plant Protection, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2 Current address: 60-125 Cole Road, Guelph, Ontario N1G 4S8, Canada 3 Division of Entomology, Natural History Museum, and Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, 1501 Crestline Drive – Suite 140, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045, USA Corresponding author: Abdulaziz S. Alqarni (
[email protected]) Academic editor: Michael Ohl | Received 30 April 2014 | Accepted 3 July 2014 | Published 23 July 2014 http://zoobank.org/151D6C5F-F54A-45EF-95C5-D89C301EDE10 Citation: Alqarni AS, Hannan MA, Engel MS (2014) A new species of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Thyreus from northern Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia (Hymenoptera, Apidae). ZooKeys 428: 29–40. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.428.7821 Abstract A new species of cleptoparasitic bee of the genus Thyreus Panzer (Apinae: Melectini) is described and figured from northern Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia. Thyreus shebicus Engel, sp. n. is a relatively small species superficially similar to the widespread and polytypic species T. ramosus (Lepeletier de Saint Fargeau) and T. ramosellus (Cockerell) but more closely allied to various African forms on the basis of the male genitalia.