Nomada ( Plumada ) felici Schwarz, 1977

Nomada ( Plumada) felici Schwarz, 1977 View in CoL

Notes. In southern Spain, Nomada felici was captured with Andrena ( Avandrena) erodiorum Wood & Ortiz-Sánchez, 2022 and A. ( Avandrena) melacanoides Wood, 2024 at the Reolid site, with A. melacanoides and A. ( Avandrena) panurgina De Stefani, 1889 at the Las Algamitas site, and with A. ( Avandrena) juliae Wood, 2023 and A. panurgina at the Tarifa site. All four of these A. ( Avandrena ) species appear to be narrowly oligolectic on Erodium ( Geraniaceae ) ( Wood 2023c). Only one of these species is present in Tunisia, the terra typica, specifically A. panurgina , although A. ( Avandrena) melacana Warncke, 1967 is also present in Tunisia, this being a species that is extremely closely related to A. melacanoides (see Wood 2024). It seems likely that N. felici attacks at least a few of these Erodium -specialised A. ( Avandrena ) species. It should be noted that spined and spineless A. ( Avandrena ) species (see Wood 2024) may represent two independent lineages, in which case A. felici appears more associated with spineless A. ( Avandrena ). Further phylogenetic work is needed.

More broadly, N. ( Plumada ) is a small, morphologically distinctive, and somewhat phylogenetically isolated subgenus containing just three species restricted to the West Palaearctic ( Straka et al. 2024). No published host associations exist, but the use of A. ( Avandrena ) species (also a small subgenus of Andrena currently containing 17 species but with some species likely to be transferred to other subgenera in the near future, see Wood 2024) is unusual, and may explain its isolated status. However, age estimates ( Straka et al. 2024) for N. ( Plumada ) indicate that it arose just under 30 million years ago, whereas A. ( Avandrena ) arose around 7 million years ago ( Pisanty et al. 2022), suggesting that these are not the ancestral hosts. Given the current challenging placement of spineless A. ( Avandrena ), this age estimate may not be accurate.

Material examined. SPAIN • 1♀; Albacete , Reolid , Torre de Gorgojí; 29–30 Apr 2022; F.J. Ortiz-Sánchez leg.; J. Straka det. ; FJOS • 1♀; Cádiz , Parque Natural Los Alcornocales , Las Algamitas, Finca Murtas; 18 Mar 2023; T.J. Wood leg.; T.J. Wood det.; TJWC • 1♂, 3♀; Cádiz , Tarifa, 1 km N, grazing fields; 23 Mar 2023; T.J. Wood det.; TJWC .

Distribution. Spain and Tunisia ( Schwarz 1977); probably present more widely across north-western Africa.

Species removed from the European list