Notes on Southeast Asian stingless bees of the genus Tetragonula (Hymenoptera, Apidae), with the description of a new species from Thailand. (American Museum novitates, no. 3886)

Abstract

A new species of stingless bee (Apinae: Meliponini) is described from workers and two males recovered from nests in tree trunks in Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. Tetragonula (Tetragonula) malaipanae, new species, resembles T. (T.) laeviceps (Smith), T. (T.) pagdeni (Schwarz), T. (T.) testaceitarsis (Cameron), and similar species, but is particularly similar to T. (T.) drescheri (Schwarz). Unlike T. drescheri, the new species lacks a defined black stripe on the underside of the metafemur, has the metatibia reddish brown to testaceous (rather than uniformly chestnut brown, and black with a yellow mark on the inner surface in T. drescheri). Characters of the uncommonly encountered T. (T.) sarawakensis (Schwarz) are also recorded.