Megachile pyrenaica Lepeletier

Megachile pyrenaica Lepeletier, ( Chalicodoma pyrenaicum)

Description.

Medium-sized (total length 13-16 mm), dark, very hairy bees (Fig. 9g).

Distinguishing features.

Only bee species in the Azores that builds large clay nests.

General distribution.

Mediterranean region.

Distribution in the Azores.

Santa Maria.

First record.

2012 (see: http://www.gba.uac.pt/media/press&events/ver.php?id=126)

Nesting.

Unknown.

Social behaviour.

Solitary.

Foraging.

Probably oligolectic on Fabaceae (Scheuchl and Willner 2016) but no observational data available from the Azores.

Phenology.

June-July.

Material.

Santa Maria (near airport), 2 specimens, 2012, det. Kratochwil, coll. Kratochwil (pers. comm., 30.09.2016).

Note.

Easily confused with the morphologically very similar Colletes rufescens, from which it differs mainly by its orange tarsi (M. Aubert, pers. comm., Sept. 2016).