Megachile cornigera 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 : 26-28

Megachile cornigera Friese.

Figs 18–19

Megachile cornigera Friese, 1904: 336 , female lectotype (here designated) (TMSA) South Africa; Michener 1968: 345 –347, 353.

Megachile (Eumegachile) cornigera Friese: Friese 1909 : 325, 328, 331, 333, 340. Creightoniella [!] cornigera (Friese) : Pasteels 1965: 14, 15, 18, 29–30. Creightonella cornigera (Friese) : Michener 1969: 480.

Discussion. Friese (1904) described this species from the Sunday’s River, South Africa. A specimen labelled as the type is not known, but part of the type series is in TMSA, and this specimen with the label data ‘Sunday’s River, 27.xii.1897, H. Brauns’ is here designated as the lectotype.

Diagnosis. Female. Vestiture on head and mesosoma mostly black, face partly white, mesepisternum and legs pallid, T1 mostly black, white anterolaterally, T2–T4 black with orange distal fringes (amount of orange increases from T2 to T4), T5–T6 orange, scopa orange ( Fig. 18a–b ). Lengths: face 2.9 mm; scutum 2.1 mm; forewing 8.7 mm; body 18.0 mm. Structure. Clypeus three times as wide as long, convex and punctuate above, concave and glabrous below, strongly tuberculate ventrolaterally; ventral edge distinctly concave mediolaterally, pointed medially ( Fig. 18a ); clypeocellus: clypeus 1:0.5; scopal hairs blunt and thickened distally.

Male. Unknown.

Distribution ( Fig. 19 ). This species is widespread in southern Africa, but rarely collected.

Material examined. Type material. Female lectotype of Megachile cornigera : ‘Sunday’s River, 27.xii.1897, L. Brauns’, [33.43S 25.51E] in TMSA.

Additional material. Namibia. Grootfontein [19.34S 18.07E], xii.1918, R. Lightfoot (1 female, SAMC). South Africa. Barberton [25.47S 31.30E], xii.1911, H. Edwards (1 female, SAMC); Port St. John [31.38S 29.32E], xi.1917, H. Swinny (1 female, TMSA); Gxulu River [33.07S 27.44E], East London, 15xii.1970, F.W. Gess (1 specimen, AMSA); Table Farm, Grahamstown [33.18S 26.32E], 12.ii.1971, F.W. Gess (2 specimens, AMSA); Hilton, Grahamstown, 2.i.1978, 5.xii.1980, 3.xii.1982, 6.xii.1985, F.W. Gess, D.W. Gess (6 specimens, AMSA).

Figures

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

FIGURE 18 a – d. Megachile spp. a – b. M. cornigera, female. a. Face. b. Habitus. c – d. M. braunsiana, female. c. Face. d. Habitus.