Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata Fabricius, 1775

Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata Fabricius, 1775

Megachilidae: Megachilinae: Megachilini: Megachile: Pseudomegachile

Apis lanata Fabricius, 1775
Apis lunata Gmelin, 1790
Apis purpurea Christ, 1791
Anthophora lanata Fabricius, 1804
Megachile lanata Latreille, 1809
Megachile proxima Smith, 1870
Megachile lanata var minhlensis Gribodo, 1884
Megachile martindalei Fox, 1891
Megachile (Archimegachile) lanata Mitchell, 1943
Chalicodoma (Pseudomegachile) lanata Pasteels, 1965
Chalicodoma (Archimegachile) lanata Raw, 1984

INDIA: Chhattisgarh: Ambikapur, 25-30.ix.2019, 3♀, sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu; Kanger valley national park, 14-18.x.2019, 1♀, sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu; Bhoramdev wildlife sanctuary, 18.ii.2020, 1♀ sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu; IGKV Raipur, 24.vii.2019, 1♂, YPT, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu; Patharra, Bemetara, 1♂, 24.ix.2019, sweep net, coll. Bhojeshwari Sahu.

Female:
General description: Body length 20.94 mm, Large bee with testaceous pubescence.
Colour: Body black with leg black and tegulae orange, antennae with black scape and pedicel, flagellum dark brown.
Head: Face covered with fulvous red pubescence; clypeus bare, elevated at middle, punctate; pedicel longer than F1; mandible four dentate without cutting edge; pubescence of head, bright yellow to deep fulvous, dense pubescence at the side of the face and around the antennae.
Mesosoma: Dense fulvous pubescence on thorax; scutellum rounded; wing flavohyaline; foreleg black with dark brown small hairs, middle and hindlegs with white to testaceous small pubescence on the inner side of the tibia and tarsal segments; claws simple.
Metasoma: T1-T2 densely covered with fulvous pubescence, remaining segments with bands of white pubescence and black erect hairs apically. T6 covered with sub erect dark brown pubescence; sternal scopa present on S2-S5, pale white in colour; S6 covered with black short hairs.
Male:
General description: Body black, body length 18.65 mm, smaller than female.
Colour: Body black with leg black and tegulae orange, antennae with black scape and pedicel, flagellum dark brown.
Head: Face with dense fulvous red pubescence; F1 larger than pedicel; mandible four dentate; clypeus with coarse punctuation on posterior margin and finely punctate at the base, truncated beneath the dense fulvous yellow pubescence.
Mesosoma: Completely covered with dense fulvous pubescence; legs black with pale white to testaceous pubescence on inner margin of tibia and tarsal segment; claws cleft and dark brown in colour; tegulae orange yellow; wings flavor hyaline; ventral mesothorax with orange yellow pubescence.
Metasoma: T1 and T2 covered with red fulvous dense pubescence; T2-T5 with transverse white apical bands of pubescence; last terga rounded apically; S1-S4 exposed with pale white pubescence apically; broadly rounded speculum.
Genitalia: Inner surface of gonostylus with fringe of plumose bristles; bare gonocoxite; penis valve slightly dilated apically.

M. lanata has many similar species of subgenus Callomegachile that are similar in size, colouration and following set of characters: lateral marginal hairs on S8, female T1-T2 covered with dense fulvous pubescence, however can be differentiated by T6 with median emarginated Transverse carina, Female mandibles with shiny, smooth mandibules (Michener 2007).

India: Chhattisgarh, Jammu, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Dadra and Nagar Haveli.
Global: India, Pakistan, Florida, Colombia, West Indies, Ethiopian and Oriental regions, Hawaii, Africa, Caribbean, North America, Oceania, South America, Southern Asia, Shri Lanka, Africa, Trinidad and Tobago, USA, Thailand, Sint Maarten (Dutch part).

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GBIF Secretariat. (2021). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2022-02-01.

Gonzalez, V. H., Diego, A., Guevara, J., Jaramillo-Silva & Ospina, R. (2011). Discovery of Megachile (Pseudomegachile) lanata (Fabricius, 1775) (Hymenoptera, Megachilidae) in Colombia, an adventive bee species from the Old World. Check List, 15 (1): 45–48.

Gupta, R. K. (1993). Taxonomic studies on the Megachilidae of North-western India (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Apoidea). India Council of Agricultural Research. New Dehli. Reprint: 1999, Scientific Publishers (India) Jodhpur, 294 pp.

Gupta, R. K. (1993). Taxonomic Studies on the Megachilidae of North-Western India. Pawan Kumar Sharma, Scientific Publisher, Jodhpur, 294 pp.

Kumari, P. (2020). Taxonomic studies on subgenus Pseudomegachile Friese under genus Megachile Latreille (Hymenoptera) from Sutlej basin plains (India). Journal of Applied and Natural Science, 12(2): 146 - 155.

Raw, A. (2002). New combinations and synonymies of leafcutter and mason bees of the americas (Megachile, hymenoptera, megachilidae). Zootaxa, 71: 1-43.

Sardar, S., Warrit, N., Rameshkumar, A. & Kazmi, S. I. (2021). New distributional records of Megachile Latreille, 1802 (Apoidea: Megachilidae) from Indian States. Records of the Zoological Survey of India, Vol. 121(1)/23–29.