''Megachile'' (''Megachiloides'') ''chomskyi'' is a species of leafcutter bee found in Texas. It is in the ''oenotherae''

species group In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

. 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 Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American professor and public intellectual known for his work in linguistics, political activism, and social criticism. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is also a ...

Taxonomic history

Royal Saskatchewan Museum entomologist Cory S. Sheffield wrote the

species description A species description is a formal scientific description of a newly encountered species, typically articulated through a scientific publication. Its purpose is to provide a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it diff ...

for ''M. chomskyi'' in a 2013 paper in the journal ''

ZooKeys ''ZooKeys'' is a peer-reviewed open access scientific journal covering zoological taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography. It was established in 2008 and the founding editor-in-chief was Terry Erwin (Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian ...

''. Sheffield concurrently published the specimen data via

GBIF The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) is an international organisation that focuses on making scientific data on biodiversity available via the Internet using web services. The data are provided by many institutions from around the ...

'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 A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, one female was designate an allotype, and the rest were designated

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

s. Neff had initially identified these specimen as all being '' M. amica''. Sheffield placed ''M. chomskyi'' in the ''oenotherae''

of the subgenus ''Megachiloides'', which also includes ''M. amica'', '' M. oenotherae'', and '' M. umatillensis''. The specific name ''chomskyi'' honors

. 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 ''Science News'' (''SN'') is an American monthly magazine devoted to articles about new scientific and technical developments, typically gleaned from recent scientific and technical journals. The periodical has been described as having a scop ...

'' included ''Megachile chomskyi'' in its list of "unusual new species names of 2013", and the Israeli newspaper ''

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' (; originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , , ) is an List of newspapers in Israel, Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel. The paper is published in Hebrew lan ...

'' 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. chomskyis 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 ''Oenothera drummondii'', the beach evening-primrose, is a species of flowering plant in the family Onagraceae. It is native to Mexico and the southeastern United States, and it has been introduced to many locations around the world. It is found ...

''. 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 NatureServe, Inc. is a non-profit organization based in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, US, that provides proprietary wildlife conservation-related data, tools, and services to private and government clients, partner organizations, and ...

gave ''M. chomskyi'' a

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

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%.

Taxonomic history

Distribution

Description and diagnosis

Biology

Conservation status

Genetics

Notes

References

Works cited

Further reading