Showing papers by "James H. Cane published in 2009"

Resurrecting the bee Osmia aglaia Sandhouse from synonymy (Hymenoptera: Apiformes: Megachilidae)

Abstract: The western US bee Osmia aglaia Sandhouse is resurrected from synonymy with O. laeta Sandhouse. Confusion resulted from errors in paratype identification, which are herein corrected. New distinguishing morphological characters are provided that justify the specific status of O. aglaia. The bee Osmia aglaia Sandhouse (Apiformes: Megachilidae) is a non-social, cavity-nesting species of the western USA. It has proven to be a manageable and effective pollinator for commercial raspberries and blackberries (Rubus spp.) (Cane 2005, 2008) in its native range in California and Oregon. Recently, questions about its taxonomic status have been brought to our attention and are rectified herein. Dr. Grace Sandhouse originally described O. aglaia from only five specimens in what remains the first and only comprehensive treatment of North American Osmia (Sandhouse, 1939). She named this species for Aglaia, one of the three Graces in Greek mythology, the one responsible for conjuring beauty and splendor. This bee species is indeed spectacular; females are a brilliant metallic green with rich overtones of blue and purple. Sandhouse's holotype (type number 52878) resides in the collections at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.). Twelve years after Sandhouse's (1939) revision, the species was synonymized under O. laeta Sandhouse (Muesebeck et al., 1951), which is another of the many brilliantly metallic, bluish-green Osmia species found in western North America. The synonymy was based upon a personal communication from P. H. Timberlake to Muesebeck et al. published on page 1169 in that catalog (Ibid). No justification was given, nor evidence of whether Timberlake saw the holotype or merely the paratype series. The synonymy was retained in the updated catalog (Krombein et al., 1979). This species is now placed in the large subgenus Melanosmia (Michener, 2000). In the following decades, two of us (Rust and Bohart) worked toward a better taxonomy of these brilliantly metallic Osmia. The effort benefitted from a flood of new specimens that were being collected by western mellitologists. New and useful distinguishing morphological characters were discovered and used for a key to females of the brilliantly metallic Osmia species. Unfortunately, it was never published. However, these new characters proved useful for distinguishing O. aglaia from O. laeta and all other western Osmia, thereby justifying Sandhouse's original recognition of the species.