Megachile (Xanthosarus) anthracina Smith, 1853

Megachile (Xanthosarus) anthracina Smith, 1853

Megachilidae: Megachilinae: Megachilini: Megachile: Xanthosarus

Megachile hornei Cameron, 1897
Cressoniella (Chaetochile) anthracina Gupta, 1988
Cressoniella (Orientocressoniella) anthracina Gupta, 1999

INDIA: Chhattisgarh: Ambikapur, 25-30.ix.2019, 4♂, 1♀, sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu.

Female:
General description: Body length 25.40 mm, black, robust shiny bee.
Colour: Body entirely black, wing metallic dark fuscous.
Head: Black pubescence on face; clypeus coarsely punctate, bare, convex, impunctate shiny line medially; inter antennal distance larger than inter ocellar distance; antennae with black scape and pedicel, flagellum fuscous; mandible four dentate with one incomplete and one complete cutting edge on second and third interspace respectively.
Mesosoma: Mesosoma with dense black pubescence at latero-posterior margin; disc of scutum bare and finely punctate; scutellum coarsely punctate, without hairs, ridged posteriorly; tegulae black; claws simple; base of claws reddish; wings dark fuscous with purple effulgence.
Metasoma: Dorsum of metasoma bare, shiny; T2-T3 smooth without punctuation at mid-base; lateral aspect of metasoma with black hairs; T6 with suberect dark brown hairs; metasomal segments bare; black to violet sternal scopa present, without white apical fasciae beneath scopa.
Male:
General description: Body length 18.88 mm, shiny, black bee with yellowish face.
Colour: Body entirely black, wing metallic dark fuscous.
Head: Fulvous white pubescence on face, gena and hypostomal area; inter antennal distance is larger than inter ocellar distance, pedicel larger than F1; mandible four dentate, the second fused with third.
Mesosoma: Fulvous white pubescence on dorsolateral part of pronotum, scutum and anterior tegulae; scutellum and metanotum with dense black pubescence; wings fuscous at the apex and basally hyaline; forelegs and midlegs black on the outer side and pale on the inner side, midleg tarsi with long black hairs forming a broad fan.
Metasoma: Dorsal metasoma with sparse black hair; T6 with pit like depression medially, T6 with median emarginated transverse carina; S1-S4 exposed, S4 with pale white and black pubescence apically; S8 broadly rounded with sparsely distributed hairs in the anterior mid dorsal; speculum pointed.
Genitalia: Gonostylus with short and long hairs on inner and distal part respectively, gonostylus with spine at inner sub median area; inner surface of gonocoxite with short hairs; penis valve apically slightly dilated.

M. anthracina is similar to M. carbonaria by black body with black pubescence. However M. anthracina can be differentiated by following characters: female face with entirely black pubescence; male middle tarsi with long black and pale yellow mixed hairs forming fan like structure (Michener 2007).

India: Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttarakhand.
Global: Southern Asia.

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