Assessment and conservation status of an endemic bee in a diversity hotspot (Hymenoptera, Melittidae, Dasypoda)

Abstract

Wild bees represent a global group of highly diversified insect pollinators, nowadays concerningly well known for their widespread observed patterns of decline. Amongst them is the genus Dasypoda, a widespread Palearctic clade of solitary bees generally poorly represented in entomological collections. Among the 39 accepted species of the genus, 35 are known by both sexes, and a large number of taxa are still known by a low number of specimens. The recently described taxon Dasypoda (Heterodasypoda) michezi Radchenko, 2017 endemic to southern Portugal is just such a case. The species was described from two male specimens, but no female material has been known to date. Here, we provide the first description of the female of D. michezi, collected close to the locus typicus in southern Portugal along with a series of conspecific males. Sex pairing is proposed based on the sympatry of the male and female specimens and on the similar morphology of non-sexual dimorphic traits and on the barcode of a fragment of Cytochrome Oxidase I. We provide high quality imaging of both sexes of D. michezi to help future identification of the species and present a key for all known species of the subgenus Heterodasypoda. We finally propose an IUCN status for D. michezi and discuss the conservation of such geographically restricted species in the current context of global change.