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© Copyright source/photographer
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Nomada fervida, F, Side, St. Johns County, FL |
© Copyright source/photographer
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Nomada fervida, F, Back, St. Johns County, FL |
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© Copyright source/photographer
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Nomada fervida, back, m, Barnwell Co, SC |
© Copyright source/photographer
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Nomada fervida, face, m, Barnwell Co, SC |
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© Copyright source/photographer
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Nomada fervida, right, m, Barnwell Co, SC |
Molly Rightmyer · 1
Nomada fervida, f habitus |
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Molly Rightmyer · 1
Nomada fervida, f hind tibia2 |
Molly Rightmyer · 1
Nomada fervida, f propodeum |
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Molly Rightmyer · 1
Nomada fervida, m habitus |
Molly Rightmyer · 1
Nomada fervida, m hind tibia2 |
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© Mary Paul
· 1
Nomada fervida, female, black supraclypeus |
© Mary Paul
· 1
Nomada fervida, female, black propodeum |
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Overview |
Reprinted with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962 Bees of the Eastern United States. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station Technical Bulletin No. 152.
FEMALE�Length 10 mm.; lateral ocelli subequally distant from margin of vertex and each other; cheeks narrow, less than half width of eyes; shorter side of basal segment of flagellum fully equal to segment 2, median segments about as broad as long; mandibles slender and simple; wings quite deeply infuscated, with the usual three submarginal cells, the 2nd very broad anteriorly, 3rd much narrowed, veins piceous, basal vein interstitial with transverse median; tegulae shining, with only a few scattered, very sparse punctures; posterior margin of scutellum quite deeply depressed medially, front coxae with elongate spines, these often obscured by pubescence; apex of hind tibiae with a dense transverse patch of extremely short, dark setae, without elongate hairs or setae; labrum, mandibles, scape and pedicel yellowish-ferruginous, the clypeus yellowish or black, face with extensive, lateral, yellow maculae reaching from lateral margins of clypeus nearly to top of eye, cheeks narrowly ferruginous along margin of eye, head otherwise black, the antennal flagellum brownish-piceous; pronotal collar, tubercles, tegulae, scutellum laterally, metanotum and a posterior spot on mesopleura, bright yellow; scutellum ferruginous medially and narrowly across anterior margin, legs ferruginous basally, becoming somewhat more testaceous on apical tarsal segments, spurs pale yellow; basal abdominal tergum with a very narrow, transverse, subapical, yellow band; tergum 2 with a similar yellow band which is quite broad laterally, somewhat narrowed medially; transverse band of tergum 3 interrupted medially and at each side, resulting in four transverse spots which may be much reduced or lacking in some specimens; tergum 4 with a transverse band which is interrupted on each extreme side; and tergum 5 with a pair of more or less separated yellow spots on each side of mid-line; abdominal sterna entirely black; punctures of head and thorax very coarse and deep in general, close between antennae and ocelli, somewhat more sparse on maculated areas at sides of face, deep and close on supraclypeal area, and somewhat finer but distinct and slightly separated on clypeus, fine but deep and distinct on vertex and cheeks; scutum very coarsely rugoso-punctate, but with a very few narrow, shining, interspaces evident, somewhat finer and distinct on scutellum, well separated on pleura below, becoming very close above; propodeum dull, very finely and closely punctate laterally, somewhat more coarsely so on posterior face, triangle smooth but rather dull; abdominal tergum 1 shining, punctures extremely minute across base, but with some more definite and distinct punctures between the transverse yellow band and apical margin, these becoming more minute toward the rim; discs of terga 2-4 with deep, distinct, close and uniform punctures, apical rims narrowly impunctate; punctures of tergum 5 deep and distinct but much more widely separated; pseudopygidium transverse, forming the truncate apical rim of tergum 5, densely covered with very short, subappressed, yellowish setae; pubescence extremely short, thin, sparse and obscure throughout, entirely whitish.
MALE�Length 10 mm.; lateral ocelli slightly nearer to each other than to margin of vertex; cheeks narrow, about half width of eyes; shorter side of basal segment of flagellum fully equal to segment 2, median segments very short, slightly broader than long; mandibles slender and simple; wings quite deeply infuscated, with the usual three submarginal cells, the 2nd very broad anteriorly, 3rd strongly narrowed, veins piceous, stigma more yellowish, basal vein interstitial with transverse median; tegulae shining, with only a few scattered, very sparse punctures; posterior margin of scutellum quite deeply depressed medially; front coxae with slender, elongate spines that are usually obscured by pubescence; hind femora unmodified; lower half of face largely yellow, only the supraclypeal area black, this sometimes extending downward onto upper portion of clypeus, the lateral maculations extending more narrowly along margin nearly to top of eye, basal half of mandibles bright yellow, becoming darker at tip, labrum more yellowish-ferruginous, head otherwise black, but cheeks above with a small yellow spot; pronotal collar, tubercles, tegulae, scutellum on each side, metanotum, and a posterior spot on mesopleura, bright yellow; scutellum ferruginous medially and along anterior margin, legs more testaceous, spurs pale yellowish; basal abdominal tergum with a narrow, entire, subapical yellow band; tergum 2 with a similar but very broad, entire band which is slightly narrowed medially; terga 3-5 with very narrow yellow bands which are more or less interrupted medially and at each side, resulting in four rather narrow, transverse, yellow maculations, 6 entirely black; abdominal sterna entirely black; punctures of head and thorax in general very coarse, deep and close, somewhat finer and more widely separated on face laterally and below, rather fine but distinct and slightly separated on clypeus, somewhat finer and close on vertex and cheeks; scutum more rugoso-punctate, punctures of scutellum somewhat more distinct, pleura below with some shining interspaces evident but becoming rather densely rugose above; propodeum dull, very finely and rather densely punctate laterally, punctures of posterior face somewhat coarser but very close, triangle smooth but rather dull and tessellate; basal abdominal tergum shining, almost impunctate, with only very fine but distinct punctures between transverse band and apical rim; discs of terga 2-5 deeply, distinctly closely and rather coarsely punctate, with only the narrow apical rims becoming impunctate, these more or less yellowish hyaline; punctures on tergum 6 somewhat coarser, deep, distinct and more widely separated but not sparse; pubescence extremely and obscure, entirely white where visible; basal width of pygidial plate about equal to quite strongly narrowed apically and a deep median apical incision, lateral carinate, surface rather smooth but with scattered, fine punctures; sternum 8 as in modesta (fig. 101); genital armature much as in modesta (fig. 101) but gonocoxites (fig. 99) with robust and rather elongate basal lobes.
DISTRIBUTION�Florida, Georgia and South
Carolina, March to September.
FLOWER RECORDS�Bidens, Ceanothus, Melilotus and Polygonum.
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Identification | |
Extracted from Droege et al. 2010. New synonymies in the bee genus Nomada from North America (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Zootaxa, 2661: 1-32.
Diagnosis. A group of Nomada species in eastern North America possess a distinct posterior pointing spine on the front coxa; of those, N. fervida is the only one whose females have a high number and density of spine-like hairs lining the outer apical margin of the hind tibia (Fig. 33). Unlike the spaced, spine-like hairs of other species that form a single line along the rim, these hairs number over 20 and form a tightly packed group without any spaces, looking a bit like a bundle of tiny pencils with slightly reddish erasers at the top. Also helpful in identifying this species is the yellow integument on the scutellum and the entirely black propodeum and propodeal triangle.
Males of N. fervida also are identified by the combination of the spine on the front coxa and extremely
dense, numerous, stout, reddish, spine-like hairs on the hind tibia (Fig. 34). However, following the pattern of
most Nomada species, the spine-like hairs on the hind tibia of the males are not as prominent and
consequently must be inspected closely.
Molecular results. We obtained DNA barcoding data from six specimens, three males and two females
from Florida and one male from Ontario (Table 1). The sequence divergence among these specimens ranged
from 0�0.2% The male from Ontario matches the description of N. wisconsinensis, having more extensive
yellow maculations on the metasomal terga. All of the specimens from Florida have maculations throughout
the terga that are tinged with orange-brown rather than entirely yellow.
Variation. Specimens of N. fervida vary primarily in the color and pattern of their maculations. The
variability can be roughly characterized according to geographic distribution. There appears to be two main
areas where the species has been collected, one centered in the Great Lakes region and one centered in Florida
and Georgia. In keeping with the general pattern of many bees and wasps from the Deep South, the southern
specimens of N. fervida all have burnt orange overtones to the yellow maculations, while in northern
specimens those overtones are much less prominent (although still present to varying degrees). On average,
southern N. fervida tend to have the least extensive maculations, partially reduced on the head,
mesepisternum, and metasomal terga and sterna; however, there is extensive overlap and similar maculation
patterns can be found in both populations. When present, the placement of these maculations is identical in
specimens of N. fervida from both geographic locations and there appears to be no significant intraspecific
variation in the punctation, body size, relative lengths of the flagellar segments, or number of specialized,
spine-like hairs on the outer apical margin of the hind tibia of this distinctive species.
Distribution. Nomada fervida is an uncommon sand specialist with two separate populations, one
centered on the sand areas of the Great Lakes and the other from the sand areas of Florida and north into
Georgia. Database records from a wide variety of specimen records available on the website Discoverlife
(www.discoverlife.org) indicate that the species has been collected outside of these main areas, but we have
not confirmed any records aside from the ones listed below. Interestingly, all of the southern collection records
for N. fervida only appear to come from the interior of Florida and none from equally sandy coastal dune
systems (with the only possible exception of a single record from St. Petersburg, Florida). As with all
uncommonly collected Nomada, we would not be surprised if more focused collecting efforts result in
additional specimens from similar areas of deep sand, for example in the Sandhills of the Carolinas, New
Jersey Pine Barrens, or comparable areas on Long Island and Cape Cod. However, it is interesting to note that
T.B. Mitchell (1960, 1962) did not collect this species in North Carolina despite having grown up collecting
amidst the large deep sand deposits in the Sandhills and regularly visiting the coastal areas of that state.
Similarly, we find it strange that this species appears to be absent from the extensive Nebraska Sand Hills
region as well as other interior dunes on the western side of the Great Plains.
Material examined. In addition to the female lectotype designated above, we examined the male
lectoallotype which had the following label data: "[USA] Randall, Wis. [Wisconsin] Burnett Co., Aug. 5�7,
'09 [5�7 August 1909]// TYPE [pink label]// 29751// Nomada wisconsinensis Graen %// Lectoallotype %
Nomada wisconsinensis Graenicher, des. Droege et al." We examined 39 specimens from the following states
and provinces: FL, WI, MI, IL, ON, GA, IN (Appendix).
Comments. We synonymize N. wisconsinensis (representing the northern distribution of the species) with
N. fervida (representing the southern distribution) based on both morphological and DNA barcoding
evidence. An examination of the two female primary types showed that diagnostic characters, especially those
of the mandibles, labrum, propodeum, hind tibia, and metasoma, are the same between the two specimens (the
N. wisconsinensis lectotype lacks antennae). The two type specimens appear only to differ in the strength and
pattern of yellow maculations, with the N. wisconsinensis lectotype a brighter yellow (the N. fervida holotype
appears to be faded, possibly due to preservation), and with the N. fervida holotype having more restricted maculations on T3�T5. Nonetheless, the maculation patterns on the metasoma are very similar for both types,
and are the same on both the head and mesosoma. The color pattern differences used to justify the recognition
of two distinct species by previous authors fall well within known patterns of northern and southern
populations and intraspecific patterns found in other Nomada. Additional support for the synonymy of these
two species is provided by the nearly identical DNA sequences from specimens conforming to the type
specimens that were caught at both extremes of the species� distribution (i.e., Ontario and Florida, see above).
We encourage researchers to investigate the large sand deposits of central and eastern North America in
June and July, a time when these areas are not commonly visited, to look for more specimens of N. fervida.
Note that populations in Florida are active as adults from March until November. While the host for this
species is unknown, we suspect that Agapostemon splendens (Lepeletier) may be a good candidate as it is
similarly restricted to sandy areas. Similar species of Nomada are known to parasitize other Agapostemon
species (as well as Nomia and Exomalopsis).
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Updated: 2024-04-19 12:38:19 gmt
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