Megachile (Xanthosarus) carbonaria Smith, 1853

Megachile (Xanthosarus) carbonaria Smith, 1853

Megachilidae: Megachilinae: Megachilini: Megachile: Xanthosarus

Anthophora barbata Fabricius, 1804
Cressoniella (Neocressoniella) carbonaria Gupta, 1999

INDIA: Chhattisgarh: Ambikapur, 25-30.ix.2019, 2♀, 1♂, sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu.

Female:
General description: Body black, body length 23.79 mm, similar to M. anthracina except smaller in size and facial pubescence golden to mixed black and white.
Colour: Body entirely black, metallic dark fuscous wings.
Head: Black black and golden white pubescence on face; clypeus punctate, convex with non-punctate shiny line medially; triangular shiny ridge at the base of the clypeus; mandible four dentate, the third interspace distally emarginated, deeper than second; inter ocular distance shorter than inter antennal distance.
Mesosoma: Black and pale white mixed pubescence at latero-anterior part; metanotum with dense fuscous black pubescence; dark fuscous wings with purple effulgence; tegulae black; legs black with black hairs, scopa absent on hindlegs, claws simple.
Metasoma: Black hair on anterio-lateral margine of T1; T2-T5 without hair, mid basal area without punctation, shiny; T6 covered with suberect black hairs. Sternal scopa black without white hair bands beneath scopa.
Male:
General description: Black, body length 18.51 mm, similar to M. anthracina except fan like long hairs absent on mid tarsal segment.
Colour: Body entirely black, metallic dark fuscous wings.
Head: Face, hypostomal area and gena with pale white pubescence; clypeus coarsely punctate at the base, slightly emarginated apically, bare medially; mandible four dentate, second and third teeth fused; inter antennal distance longer than inter ocellar distance; F1 is slightly larger than pedicel.
Mesosoma: Sooty black and white pubescence on outer margin of mesosoma; scutum and scutellum bare, finely punctate and only with scattered white small pubescence, if present, tegulae black with black and white mixed pubescence anteriorly; legs black, forelegs with fuscous hair on inner margin of tibia and tarsi, midlegs and hindlegs black with black hairs, claws cleft; wings dark fuscous, distally hyaline.
Metasoma: T1-T5 bare, finely punctate, impunctate at mid-basal area, shiny black; disc of T6 with pit like depression medially; lateral spine on T7; S1-S4 bare at middle, anterior end of S8 broadly rounded; spiculum rounded and distally pointed.
Genitalia: similar to M. anthracina but penis valve slightly incurved at inner surface, narrow towards tip and directed straight.

M. carbonaria is similar to M. anthracina by body and pubescence colour. However, M. carbonaria can be differentiated by following characters: female face with mixed black and white pubescence; male median tarsi without modifications which are modified in M. anthracina as broad fan like structure (Michener 2007).

India: Chhattisgarh, Gujrat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka.
Global: Southern Asia, Africa, USA, Vietnam.

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