Bees of the subgenus Amegilla (Asaropoda) Cockerell, 1926 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) are large and conspicuous, but despite their nominally easy detectability, uncertainty persists as to their distribution in Southeast Asia. Considered to be endemic to Australia, New Guinea, and the Bismark Archipelago, little material evidence has been available to support their existence outside of Australia. Based on new revision of museum material, the presence of Amegilla (Asaropoda) bombiformis (Smith, 1854) on the island of New Guinea is positively confirmed, being present in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and newly reported from Indonesia (Papua). Three new species are described: Amegilla (Asaropoda) angustissima sp. nov. (PNG: Misima Island), Amegilla (Asaropoda) ruficauda sp. nov. (PNG: mainland and New Ireland), and Amegilla (Asaropoda) sinewita sp. nov. (PNG: New Britain). An identification key is presented to facilitate further study. This work increases the number of Amegilla (Asaropoda) species to 24, confirms their presence in New Guinea and the Bismark Archipelago, and adds to the emerging trend of substantial undescribed bee diversity on New Guinea and surrounding islands.
Thomas J. Wood (Wed,) studied this question.
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