Austroplebeia

Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Ecdysozoa
Cladus: Panarthropoda
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Classis: Insecta
Cladus: Dicondylia
Subclassis: Pterygota
Cladus: Metapterygota
Infraclassis: Neoptera
Cladus: Eumetabola
Cladus: Endopterygota
Superordo: Hymenopterida
Ordo: Hymenoptera
Subordo: Apocrita
Superfamilia: Apoidea

Familia: Apidae
Subfamilia: Apinae
Tribus: Meliponini
Genus: Austroplebeia
Species: A. australis – A. cassiae – A. cincta – A. cockerelli – A. essingtoni – A. magna – A. ornata – A. percincta – A. symei – A. websteri
Name

Austroplebeia Moure, 1961

Type species: Trigona cassiae
References

Dollin, A.E., Dollin, L.J. & Rasmussen, C. 2015. Australian and New Guinean Stingless Bees of the Genus Austroplebeia Moure (Hymenoptera: Apidae)—a revision. Zootaxa 4047(1): 1–73. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4047.1.1. Preview (PDF) ISBN 978-1-77557-837-6 (paperback); ISBN 978-1-77557-838-3 (Online edition) Reference page.
Moure, J.S. 1961. A Preliminary Supra-specific Classification of the Old World Meliponine Bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Studia Entomologica 4(1–4): 181–242. Reference page. [original description]

Links

BHL bibliography
Hassler, M. {{{1}}}. Austroplebeia. World Plants: Synonymic Checklists of the Vascular Plants of the World In: Roskovh, Y., Abucay, L., Orrell, T., Nicolson, D., Bailly, N., Kirk, P., Bourgoin, T., DeWalt, R.E., Decock, W., De Wever, A., Nieukerken, E. van, Zarucchi, J. & Penev, L., eds. {{{1}}}. Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life. Published online. Accessed: {{{1}}} {{{2}}} {{{3}}}. Reference page.
Austroplebeia – Taxon details on Encyclopedia of Life (EOL).
Global Biodiversity Information Facility. 2019. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset. Taxon: Austroplebeia.
ION
Nomenclator Zoologicus

Austroplebeia is a stingless bee (Meliponini) genus in the family Apidae. The genus was erected by Jesus Santiago Moure in 1961.[1][2] The genus comprises five described species endemic to Australia and New Guinea.[3]Austroplebeia are more closed related to the African stingless bees than rest of the species found in Asia and Australia.[4]

The species of Austroplebeia are difficult to separate reliably by body size or morphology[5] except for A. cincta which can be distinguished readily by its colouration and pilosity.[6] There are also few differences in their nest structures. This has hindered taxonomic studies to date and no workable key exists for the Austroplebeia species.[7]

All species are small, black and robust (length: 3.0–4.9 mm) and differ from other stingless bee species that co-occur in the same region (i.e. Tetragonula, Platytrigona, Papuatrigona) by the presence of cream or yellow markings in their head and thorax.[3] Most species construct their nests largely from wax, unlike most stingless bees, they use propolis sparingly. They construct a fine, lacy curtain of resin droplets over their nest entrance at night in order to protect against ants and other predators.[8][9]

In Australia, people keep these bees in logs or wooden hives made of boxes.[8][9] They show potential as pollinators of both field and greenhouse crops[10][11][12]

Species

In alphabetical order:[13]

Austroplebeia australis (Friese, 1898)
Austroplebeia cassiae (Cockerell, 1910)
Austroplebeia cincta (Mocsáry, 1898)
Austroplebeia essingtoni (Cockerell, 1905)
Austroplebeia fujianica (Engel, 2021)
Austroplebeia magna (Dollin, Dollin, & Rasmussen, 2015)

Gallery

Austroplebeia worker faces
A. cincta (New Guinea population) worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. cincta (New Guinea population) worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm
A. cincta (Queensland population) worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. cincta (Queensland population) worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm
A. essingtoni worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. essingtoni worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm
A. australis worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. australis worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm
A. cassiae worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. cassiae worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm
A. magna worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

A. magna worker face. Scale bar = 0.25 mm

References

Moure, J.S. (1961). "A Preliminary Supra-specific Classification of the Old World Meliponine Bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)". Studia Entomologica. Editora Vozes. 4 (1–4): 181–242. ISSN 0585-5098. OCLC 430338837.
Michener, C.D. (21 September 1990) [1990]. "Classification of the Apidae (Hymenoptera)". University of Kansas Science Bulletin. Lawrence, Kan.: University of Kansas. 54 (4): 75–164. ISSN 0022-8850. OCLC 23011586. S2CID 82977325. BioStor BHL ResearchGate Publication 313186394
Dollin, Anne E.; Dollin, Leslie J.; Rasmussen, Claus (23 November 2015). "Australian and New Guinean Stingless Bees of the Genus Austroplebeia Moure (Hymenoptera: Apidae)—a revision". Zootaxa. 4047 (1): 1–73. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4047.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 26624733.
RASMUSSEN, CLAUS; CAMERON, SYDNEY A. (1 January 2010). "Global stingless bee phylogeny supports ancient divergence, vicariance, and long distance dispersal". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 99 (1): 206–232. doi:10.1111/j.1095-8312.2009.01341.x. ISSN 0024-4066.
Dollin, Anne E.; Dollin, Leslie J.; Sakagami, the late Shôichi F. (1997). "Australian stingless bees of the genus Trigona (Hymenoptera: Apidae)". Invertebrate Systematics. 11 (6): 861–896. doi:10.1071/it96020. ISSN 1447-2600.
Halcroft, Megan Therese; Dollin, Anne; Francoy, Tiago Mauricio; King, Jocelyn Ellen; Riegler, Markus; Haigh, Anthony Mark; Spooner-Hart, Robert Neil (1 January 2016). "Delimiting the species within the genus Austroplebeia, an Australian stingless bee, using multiple methodologies". Apidologie. 47 (1): 76–89. doi:10.1007/s13592-015-0377-7. ISSN 1297-9678.
Rasmussen, Claus (17 November 2008). "Catalog of the Indo-Malayan/Australasian stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini)". Zootaxa. 1935 (1): 1–80. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.1935.1.1. ISSN 1175-5334.
Halcroft, Megan; Spooner-Hart, Robert; Dollin, Lig Anne (2013), Vit, Patricia; Pedro, Silvia R. M.; Roubik, David (eds.), "Australian Stingless Bees", Pot-Honey: A legacy of stingless bees, New York, NY: Springer, pp. 35–72, doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-4960-7_3, ISBN 978-1-4614-4960-7, retrieved 23 March 2021
Heard, Tim (2016). The Australian native bee book : keeping stingless bee hives for pets, pollination and sugarbag honey. West End, Brisbane, Qld. ISBN 978-0-646-93997-1. OCLC 910915206.
Cunningham, Saul A.; FitzGibbon, Frances; Heard, Tim A. (2002). "The future of pollinators for Australian agriculture". Australian Journal of Agricultural Research. 53 (8): 893–900. doi:10.1071/ar01186. ISSN 1444-9838.
Greco, Mark K.; Spooner-Hart, Robert N.; Beattie, Andrew G. A. C.; Barchia, Idris; Holford, Paul (1 January 2011). "Australian stingless bees improve greenhouse Capsicum production". Journal of Apicultural Research. 50 (2): 102–115. doi:10.3896/IBRA.1.50.2.02. ISSN 0021-8839. S2CID 83520276.
Halcroft, Megan Therese (2012). Investigations into the biology, behaviour and phylogeny of a potential crop pollinator: the Australian stingless bee, Austroplebeia australis. Doctor of Philosophy thesis, University of Western Sydney.
Dollin, A.E.; Dollin, L.J.; Rasmussen, C. (23 November 2015) [2015]. "Australian and New Guinean Stingless Bees of the Genus Austroplebeia Moure (Hymenoptera: Apidae) - a revision". Zootaxa. 4047 (1): 1–73. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4047.1.1. eISSN 1175-5334. ISBN 978-1-77557-837-6. ISSN 1175-5326. PMID 26624733. S2CID 2024534. ResearchGate Publication 284403872