Megachile trichroma Friese

Eardley, Connal, 2012, A taxonomic revision of the southern African species of the subgenus Creightonella Cockerell (Apoidea: Megachilidae: Megachile Latreille), Zootaxa 3159, pp. 1-35 : 30-31

Megachile trichroma Friese

( Fig. 20 )

Megachile trichroma Friese, 1922: 29 –30, female holotype (type depository unknown) Equatorial Guinea; Cockerell 1931: 167; Cockerell 1937: 111, 244.

Creightoniella [!] trichroma (Friese) : Pasteels 1965: 16, 26–27, 36.

Creightonella trichroma (Friese) : Medler 1980: 481; Li Enkulu 1988: 137 –138, 141, 155, 178.

Discussion. This species was described by Friese (1922a) from Equatorial Guinea. The holotype has not been studied and it has been identified from the original description and identified material in MRAC.

Diagnosis. Female. Vestiture on head black, mesosoma mostly black, posterolateral and posterior regions white, legs black, T1 white, T2–T4 black, T5–T6 orange, scopa orange ( Fig. 20a–b ). Lengths: face 4.4 mm; scutum 3.5 mm; forewing 12.0 mm; body 17.0 mm. Structure. Clypeus 2.5 times as wide as long, convex and punctuate above, flat and punctuate below, not tuberculate ventrolaterally, ventral edge slightly concave mediolaterally, pointed medially ( Fig. 20 c); clypeocellus: clypeus 1:0.5; scopal hairs blunt and thickened distally.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 19 ). This tropical African species occurs in two widely separated, dissimilar areas in South Africa. The first being mountain and in the north and the second is on the coast near the south of the Country. They are possibly both densely wooded.

Material examined. South Africa. Soutpansberg, 1470m, 4km from national road towards Happy Rest, 22.59S 29.43E, 8.i.2009, On Peltoforum sp., in CUIC; Gxulu River, East London, 15.xii.1970, F. Gess ( AMSA).

Figures

FIGURE 19. Known distribution of Megachile cornigera (black dot), Megachile braunsiana (yellow triangle) and Megachile trichroma (blue square).

FIGURE 20 a – b. Megachile trichroma, female. a. Face. b. Habitus