Species of bee
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Megachile" ("Megachiloides") "chomskyi is a species of leafcutter bee found in Texas. It is in the "oenotherae" species group. It is likely a specialist pollinator of plants in the family Onagraceae. Cory S. Sheffield described the species in 2013 and named the specific name in honor of Noam Chomsky.
Taxonomic history.
Royal Saskatchewan Museum entomologist Cory S. Sheffield wrote the species description for "M. chomskyi" in a 2013 paper in the journal "ZooKeys". Sheffield concurrently published the specimen data via GBIF's Integrated Publishing Toolkit.
All nineteen of the "M. chomskyi" specimens Sheffield based his description on were provided by Jack Neff of the Central Texas Melittological Institute. Neff and Allan W. Hook collected most of the specimens. In all there were two male specimens and seventeen female specimens: one male was designated the holotype, one female was designate an allotype, and the rest were designated paratypes. Neff had initially identified these specimen as all being "M. amica". Sheffield placed "M. chomskyi" in the "oenotherae" species group of the subgenus "Megachiloides", which also includes "M. amica", "M. oenotherae", and "M. umatillensis".
The specific name "chomskyi" honors Noam Chomsky. Sheffield wrote he commemorated Chomsky "for his many academic achievements and contributions as a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, political critic, activist and global champion of human rights and freedoms". Sheffield also has stated that he has been "a huge fan and follower of his writings, lectures, and political views for a long time". The magazine "Science News" included "Megachile chomskyi" in its list of "unusual new species
names of 2013", and the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz" included this species in a 2016 article listing taxa named after Jews.
Distribution.
"M. chomskyi" is found in the American state of Texas. The type locality, where the holotype was collected, is in Winkler County. Other counties specimens were collected include Ward County, Kleberg County, and Travis County. Collection areas included the Monahans Sandhills State Park on the border of Ward and Winkler Counties. Sheffield has suggested that the range might extend to Arizona and Kansas, raising the possibility that some specimens identified as "M. amica" might in fact be "M. chomskyi".
Description and diagnosis.
Species in the "oenotherae" group have long tongues, although "M. chomskyi"'s tongue is not as long as those of "M. umatillensis" and "M. oenotherae". Both sexes of "M. chomskyi" have a tongue length of , making it more than half the length of the body. For both sexes, the tongue's first palpomere is 55% the length of the second.
"M. chomskyi" is most morphologically similar to "M. amica". However, "M. chomskyi" are larger than "M. amica" and "M. oenotherae" so their body length can be used as a diagnostic. The body length is for males and for females. Males have a forewing length of while females have a forewing length of . The females of "M. chomskyi" and "M. amica" can also be distinguished by their hair. The dark pubescence on female "M. chomskyi" is composed entirely of short hair, whereas the dark hair on "M. amica" is of varied lengths.
Biology.
Fifteen specimens of "M. chomskyi" were collected on the flowers of "Calylophus hartwegii" (Hartweg's sundrops, Hartweg evening primrose) and one was collected from the flowers of "Oenothera drummondii". Sheffield suggests that, like other members of the "oenotherae" species group, "M. chomskyi" is oligolectic, exclusively pollinating plants in the family Onagraceae. The "M. chomskyi" specimens were collected as early as late April and as late as June.
Conservation status.
In 2016, NatureServe gave "M. chomskyi" a conservation status of "GU", denoting they could not assign a conservation rank due to insufficient data.
Genetics.
An analysis of the Cytochrome oxidase I gene showed a 7.8% difference between "M. chomskyi" and "M. amica"; each species had intraspecific variation of less than 0.8%.
References.
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Further reading.
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