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Perdita zebrata Cresson, 1878
Perdita canina Cockerell, 1895; Perdita bakerae Cockerell, 1896; Perdita (Perdita) zebrata flavens Timberlake, 1958, valid subspecies

Life   Insecta   Hymenoptera   Apoidea   Andrenidae   Perdita
Subgenus: Perdita


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Overview
Reprinted from: Cresson, E.T., 1878. Descriptions of new North American Hymenoptera in the collection of the American Entomological Society. Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc.7:69.


much like albipennis Cress., but smaller; head and thorax blue or greenish blue, thinly clothed with pale pubescence; a deep longitudinal groove on anterior orbite, more conspicuous than in albi pennis; sides of face narrowed above, clypeus, two dots above, sometimes con fluent, occasionally an irregular transverse Hue on front above antenna, labrum, mandibles except tips, scape beneath, interrupted bend on prothorax, tubercles and tegula white or yellow; sometimes the clypeus has two or more bleck dots; flagellum pale testaceous, brown above; thorax smooth and shining; wings whitish-hyaline, nervures and stigma white or yellowish, neuration as in hyalina; legs yellow the two auterior pairs more or less bleck behind, posterior femora above and their tibia except base, black, tarsi varied with fuscous; abdomen oblong-ovate, flat, shining, yellow, with more or less broad black or brown band at apex of each segment above; in well marked specimens these bands bend obliquely downwards on base of the following segment: the first segment being black or brown with a yellowish band on the disk; apical seg ments fringed with pale hairs; venter yellow. Length .25 inch. Var.?Four anterior legs entirely yellow; abdomen yellow with narrow blackish band at apex of segments 1?4, ending laterally in a dot which is sometimes separe ted from the band. Hab.?Colorado, (Ridings, Morrison). Seven specimens. This species is quite variable in its markings and specimens will doubtless be found with the abdomen entirely yellow. Mr. Frederick Smith, to whom specimens were sent, refers this species to Nom ioides Schenck.

Identification
Extracted from: P.H. TImberlake. A Revisional Study of The Bees of the Genus Perdita F. Smith, with Special Reference to the Fauna of the Pacific Coast (Hymenoptera, Apoidea Part III). University of Caifornia Press Berkeley and Los Angeles 1958

P. zebrata is probably the most abundant, or, at least, the most easily collected species of the genus in the Rocky Mountain states. It has been recorded from numerous localities in New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Montana, and Utah, and the form with yellow markings, now to be known as P. zebrata flavens, from Wyoming and Nevada. It collects pollen from species of Cleome, but has been recorded also from flowers of Solidago and Helianthus, which it visits presumably only for nectar. The type locality is Colorado, without a more definite location.

Cresson confused two distinct species in his description of zebrata, the nontypi-cal one (female of luteiceps Cockerell) having bright yellow markings, which accounts for the mention of yellow in the markings and the asserted extension of the face marks above level of antennae.

Extracted from: Timberlake P.H., (1958). A Revisional Study of The Bees of the Genus Perdita F. Smith, with Special Reference to the Fauna of the Pacific Coast (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) Part III. University of Caifornia Press Berkeley and Los Angeles 1958, Volume 14, No. 5, pp. 303-410, plates 4-15.


Perdita zebrata flavens n. subspecies


This race differs from typical zebrata only in having the creamy-white markings changed to a bright yellow, which modification must have been induced as an adaptation to the yellow-flowered Cleome lutea in the Great Basin region. Cockerell in 1922 recorded females with yellow markings from Green River and Rock Springs, Wyoming, as well as one out of four specimens, with intermediates, from Grand Junction, Colorado. Specimens from Granger, Wyoming, apparently have the markings uniformly yellow, but two females from Whitney and Montpelier, Idaho, have white markings. Material from Utah exhibits variability, but specimens with white markings predominate, except probably in some localities such as Vernal and Kanab. The race flavens presumably occurs throughout most of the Great Basin but intergrades with typical zebrata over a wide area along the eastern border. Type material of flavens is therefore being restricted to specimens from Nevada and Oregon


Names
Scientific source:

Supported by

Hosts · map
FamilyScientific name @ source (records)
Apiaceae  Pastinaca sativa @ BBSL (4)
Asteraceae  Chrysothamnus sp @ BBSL (9)

Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus @ BBSL (1)

Ericameria nauseosa @ BBSL (1)

Gutierrezia @ UCRC_ENT (11)

Helianthus sp @ BBSL (2)

Verbesina @ UCRC_ENT (1)

Wyethia scabra @ BBSL (1)
Brassicaceae  Stanleya pinnata @ BBSL (4)
Capparaceae  Cleome lutea @ BBSL (87)

Cleome serrulata @ BBSL (60)

Cleome sp @ BBSL (51)

Cleomella sp @ BBSL (4)
Chenopodiaceae  Salsola tragus @ BBSL (2)

Sarcobatus vermiculatus @ BBSL (2)
Cleomaceae  Cleome serrulata @ UCRC_ENT (115)

Cleome @ UCRC_ENT (46)

Oxystylis lutea @ UCRC_ENT (12)

Wislizenia refracta @ UCRC_ENT (9)
Euphorbiaceae  Croton texensis @ UCRC_ENT (2)
Fabaceae  Melilotus alba @ BBSL (3)
Hydrophyllaceae  Phacelia sp @ BBSL (1)
Polygonaceae  Eriogonum sp @ BBSL (5)
_  Withheld @ BBSL (2753)

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Updated: 2024-03-29 07:09:03 gmt
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