Svastrides melanura (Spinola)

Vivallo, Felipe, 2009, Notes on the bee genus Alloscirtetica Holmberg, 1909 in northern Chile with the description of two new altiplanic species and a key for the Chilean species of Eucerini (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Zootaxa 2010, pp. 16-30 : 26

Svastrides melanura (Spinola)

Male with clypeus largely black, with an apical yellow band. T4 and T5 completely covered by black hairs ( Urban 1972). T3 of female has a basal band of white, dense and long pilosity, which is characteristic of this species (Urban 1975). Some females of S. zebra can exhibit white pilosity almost forming a band on T3, but it is not as evident as in S. melanura . Illustrations of the male genitalia and other morphological structures were made by Urban (1972).

This species is distributed mainly in central Chile ( Wagenknecht 1970; Toro 1986), with relatively few records in Argentina ( Urban 1972) . In Chile, Svastrides melanura visits Teucrium bicolor Sm. (Lamiaceae) ( Jaffuel & Pirión 1926), Lavatera assurgentiflora Kellogg (Malvaceae) , Prosopis chilenis (Fabaceae) , Schinus polygamus Cav. (Anacardiaceae) , Madia sativa Mol. (Compositae) , Monnina linearifolia Ruiz & Pav. (Polygalaceae) , Geoffroea decorticans Burk. (Fabaceae) , Cosmea bipinnata (Cav.) (Asteraceae) , Scabiosa atropurpurea L. ( Dipsacaceae ), Rubus ulmifolius Schott. (Rosaceae) and Echium vulgare L. ( Boraginaceae ) ( Wagenknecht 1970). Svastrides melanura is parasitized by Doeringiella gayi (Spinola) ( Apidae : Nomadini ) ( Ruiz 1940).