Nomada townesi Mitchell, 1962

Zarrillo, Tracy A., Stoner, Kimberly A. & Ascher, John S., 2025, Biodiversity of Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila) in Connecticut (USA), Zootaxa 5586 (1), pp. 1-138 : 97

Nomada townesi Mitchell, 1962 (ruficornis group)

Townes’ Nomad

Notes: Nomada townesi is a very poorly known species that has been known only from a male holotype collected on 26 Mar 1944 by H.K. and M. Townes at Takoma Park, Montgomery County, Maryland. The type specimen is one of four species keying to couplet 44 in Mitchell that have the basal vein of the forewing interstitial or nearly so with the transverse median vein.A specimen from Laurel, PWRC site 5, Prince Georges County Maryland, 20 Mar 2001, coll. Sam Droege, has such venation and otherwise matches Mitchell’s description. However, another larger but evidently conspecific individual taken nearby (at PWRC site 6) three days later (23 Mar) has the basal vein distinctly basad of the transverse median vein. The Connecticut male reported here closely matches the second specimen with venation atypical for the species (but normal for Nomada of this group). From these observations we conclude that N. townesi occurs in the Northeastern United States but may have been overlooked if many (perhaps most) individuals cannot be keyed reliable in Mitchell (1962) due to variation in placement of the basal vein relative to the transverse median vein. This observation suggests that the obscure N. ulsterensis Mitchell, 1962 , also keying to couplet 44, may prove to be a previously described Nomada species with anomalous venation as opposed to a valid species. However, ignoring venation, N. townesi does not seem to match any other regional species so we regard it as distinct for now. On the other hand, some obscure, yellow-banded species formerly included in Heminomada (e.g., N. autumnalis Mitchell , in Gibbs et al., 2017) with interstitial basal veins that key out at couplet 32 may also represent individual variation as opposed to valid taxa. Schwarz and Gusenleiter (2004) placed one such taxon, N. bishoppi Cockerell , in synonymy, and we suspect that another obscure species in this group, N. subrutila Lovell and Cockerell, 1905 , described from Maine (see Dibble et al. 2017) may prove to be a synonym of N. luteoloides (the description matches this better than another possible association, N. imbricata .)

Material examined. New London Co.: Preston: 1 km S jct. State Routes 2A and 12, 41.47346 N -72.06718

W, 9 Apr 2009, coll. C. T. Maier, 1 ♂, det. by (and on loan to) J.S. Ascher, 2023 .