Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata ( Fabricius 1775 )

Dorchin, Achik & Praz, Christophe J., 2018, Taxonomic revision of the Western Palaearctic bees of the subgenus Pseudomegachile (Hymenoptera, Apiformes, Megachilidae, Megachile), Zootaxa 4524 (3), pp. 251-307 : 291-292

Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata ( Fabricius 1775) .

Apis lanata Fabricius 1775: 385 , ♀, “America” [Lesser Antilles according to Moure 1960]. Lectotype ♀, ZMUC ( Moure 1960) [ZMUK according to Raw 2007].

Apis purpurea Christ 1791: 168 , ♀, “Siberien” [ Russia, Siberia; probably erroneous locality].

Megachile lanata var minhlensis Gribodo 1884, ♀, “Minhla” [ Birmanie].

Megachile martindalei Fox 1891: 344 , ♀ ♂, “ Kingston ” [ Jamaica]. Lectotype ♂ (designation of Moure 1960), USNM (see Raw 2007). Synonymy in Moure 1960: 108.

Description: This species was found most closely related to the semivestita species group of the Oriental region (previously known as Largella) ( Trunz et al. 2016), and is morphologically intermediate between the semivestita species group and other Pseudomegachile ( Praz 2017) .

Unique characteristics of this species include: the short, truncate clypeus of female, without or at most with inconspicuous preapical medial protuberance or tooth; and in the male, additionally to the characteristics listed in the key, the simple structure of metasomal sternites, particularly S5 and S6 with moderately dense sclerotized capitate hairs ( Figs 68–70 ). Furthermore, the elongate, slender mandible of the female with short premarginal area and surface sculpture shagreened is reminiscent of M. ericetorum ; These morphological characteristics are all suggesting the flavipes species group and M. ericetorum , in agreement with the phylogenetic position of M. lanata ( Fig. 1 ).

Distribution: Oriental zone; Oman (possibly introduced); Central America (introduced).

Pollen hosts: Unknown.

Nesting biology: The nests are mostly built in existing cavities such as hollow plant stems or old nests of Sceliphron Klug , more rarely in trap nests; the cells are built with mud; addition of resin has not been reported ( Jayasingh & Freeman 1980; Raw 1984; Campbell et al. 2017). Reports of brood cells build with leaf discs ( Kapil et al. 1970) are likely based on identification errors.

Material examined: OMAN: Al Hamra N23.1103 E57.2931 654m, 5.3.2008, J. Gibbs leg. ; Between Ar Rustiq & As Ghasub N23.4231 E 57.4336 302m, 8.3.2008, J. Gibbs leg.; Al Quiwair , Muscat 23°35’48''N 58°26’57''E 18m, 1.3.2008, D. Michez & S. Patiny leg.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Phylogenetic tree obtained in maximum likelihood analysis of the concatenated DNA matrix. Outgroup taxa are indicated in grey. The full dataset (two nuclear genes, 28S, and the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase I) was obtained for taxa in bold (“backbone phylogeny”), while other taxa only have the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase I. Numbers shown at nodes are bootstrap values based on 1000 bootstrap replicates performed in RAxML v.7.0.4. For the flavipes species group, the country is indicated as a two-letters country code. The different species groups recognized in the western Palaearctic as well as isolated species not included in these groups are indicated.

FIGURES 65–70. Sternites 4–6 of males. 65–67: M. ericetorum. 68–70: M. lanata. PAMG: preapical medial groove. Scale bars equal 1 mm.