Melitta seitzi Alfken, 1927, une nouvelle mélitte pour la faune française (Hymenoptera, Melittidae)

Melitta seitzi Alfken, 1927, a new melittid bee to the French fauna (Hymenoptera, Melittidae). Melitta seitzi (Melittidae), a bee species previously known only in Spain, was found in 2022 in southeast France as part of a project to improve knowledge of wild pollinators in the Parc Naturel Régional du Verdon. Additional surveys carried out in 2023 revealed that the females forage locally on the flowers of Lotus dorycnium L. (Fabaceae). An analysis of the bee assemblages observed at the same time as M. seitzi leads us to suspect a possible association of M. seitzi with some cuckoo-bees of the genus Nomada. The article also proposes an identification key to distinguish M. seitzi from the other species of the genus present in France. This key is accompanied by a comparative table.