Megachile kruegeri Friese 1924

Praz, Christophe, Al-Shahat, Ahmed M. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2021, Taxonomic revision of the subgenus Eutricharaea Thomson in Egypt, with a key to the species and the description of two new species (Hymenoptera, Anthophila Megachilidae, genus Megachile Latreille), Zootaxa 5032 (3), pp. 301-330 : 314

Megachile kruegeri Friese 1924

Fig. 40 .

Megachile kruegeri [as Krügeri] Friese 1924, in Friese and Schulthess 1924: 282, ♀, “ Bengasi, Cyrenaica [ Libya]”. Lectotype ♀, by present designation (see below), ETHZ.

Type material: Lectotype ♀, designated here, a female in good condition, labeled as follows: 1. “ Cyrenaica, Bengasi, 5.vi.22, Geo. C. Krüger ”. 2. “ Typus [printed] ”; 3. “ Megachile krügeri Fr. f det Friese 1909 (sic)”; Lec- totype Megachile krügeri Friese des. van der Zanden 1985” ( ETHZ). This lectotype designation has not been pub- lished and is accepted here.

Distribution: Known only from the type specimens from northern Libya.

Note: This species, which has not been found in Egypt so far, appears to be particularly closely related to M. apicalis . Both species agree on most morphological characters, in particular the modified vestiture on the trochanter and femur of the hind legs ( Müller and Bansac 2004), the sculpture and the coloration of the vestiture. The only trait that appears to differentiate these two taxa is the shape of the apical protuberance of the clypeus; while this protuberance is triangular or rounded in M. apicalis , it is weakly bilobed in M. kruegeri ( Fig. 40 ). This condition has not been observed in M. apicalis , including in numerous specimens of the latter species examined from North Africa, suggesting that M. kruegeri may represent an isolated taxon, possibly restricted to northern Libya. Several males from Cyrenaica preserved in the Schulthess collection (ETHZ) have been identified as M. apicalis ; they may belong to M. kruegeri . More material from North Africa is needed to evaluate the status of this species, which is for now retained as a valid species.

Figures

FIGURES 35–40. 35. Front view of head of female Megachile levistriga. 36. Front leg of male of M. levistriga. 37. Dorsal view of mesosoma and head of female of M. minutissima. 38. Front view of head of female of M. minutissima. 39. Dorsal view of mesosoma and head of male of M. minutissima. 40. Clypeus of female of M. kruegeri.