Local rediscovery of the eucerine bee Xenoglossa cressoniana in Texas and Oklahoma after over a century of absence from the southern Great Plains

Abstract

Xenoglossa cressoniana, also known as Tetraloniella cressoniana or Xenoglossodes cressoniana, is a eucerine bee known mainly from the US Great Plains. The species was described from a female collected somewhere in Texas in the early 1900s. Here, we report local rediscovery of this species in Texas and a new state record for Oklahoma after over a century with no intervening observations in either US state. While surveying north Texas ranches, we collected six specimens, including both males and females, at five sites northwest of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. In Oklahoma, we collected two females within a single nature preserve. Xenoglossa cressoniana's range, the Great Plains and parts of the deep South, covers a large proportion of the United States that has been historically overlooked by most bee researchers. This report highlights the critical need for increasing data from under-sampled regions including the Great Plains and from private lands, even within a heavily sampled country such as the US.