Megachile (Pseudocentron) possograndensis Schrottky, new combination

Megachile poçograndensis Schrottky 1902: 438 . Female. Type locality: Poço Grande, S. Paulo [state], Brazil, January (Hempel). Type repository: Museu de Zoologia, da Universidade de São Paulo. Examined. [Type is missing left fore tarsi.]

Megachile possograndensis: Schrottky 1913: 172 . New spelling.

Megachile (Pseudocentron) poçograndensis: Mitchell 1943: 664 .

Megachile (Moureapis) possograndensis: Raw 2002, 7: 25.

The two sexes of this species had not been associated previously. The present combination is based on examination of a series of seven females and three males collected in Santa Catarina State in southern Brazil by Srta. Denise Mouga. Although the bees were not reared from a nest, no other bee similar to them was encountered during a survey which included 115 specimens of Megachile . The female of M. possograndensis bears the slight indentation at the centre of the apical margin of the labrum and narrow sixth sternite typical of the subgenus Moureapis, though the inner angle of the mandible is acute. However the male is clearly a Pseudocentron with greatly expanded ivory fore basitarsi. The fore basitarsi of Moureapis are unmodified.