Little is known about the native bees of Uruguay and no scientific research has been carried out until now. This study aimed to contribute to the knowledge of the native bees, still greatly undermined in Uruguay. To achieve that, workers from the potential species were collected from different locations of the country. Firstly, they were morphologically identified through a taxonomic key and complemented with the Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I sequence, used to infer phylogenetic trees and a haplotype network together with others available in Genbank. Nest characteristics and both morphological and molecular analyses confirm the presence of Mourella caerulea in Uruguay, which constitutes the southernmost formal record of the species. Population analyses suggest that M. caerulea could have colonized the region from the north, slowly and gradually, through the upper regions of the Pampa’s plain.

中文翻译：

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科学笔记：蓝纹穆雷拉的最南端记录以及南方古老和逐渐殖民化的证据

人们对乌拉圭的本土蜜蜂知之甚少，直到现在还没有进行任何科学研究。这项研究旨在帮助了解在乌拉圭仍然受到严重破坏的本地蜜蜂的知识。为了实现这一目标，从该国不同地点收集了潜在物种的工人。首先，它们通过分类学关键字进行形态学鉴定，并与细胞色素氧化酶亚基 I 序列互补，用于推断系统发育树和单倍型网络以及 Genbank 中可用的其他序列。巢穴特征以及形态学和分子分析证实了乌拉圭蓝纹穆雷氏菌的存在，这是该物种最南端的正式记录。种群分析表明 M. caerulea 可能从北部缓慢而逐渐地在该地区定居，