Megachile (Creightonella) Cockerell

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 : 4-5

Megachile (Creightonella) Cockerell

Megachile (Creightonella) Cockerell, 1908a: 146 . Type species: Megachile mitimia

Cockerell, 1908, by original designation. Creightoniella [!] Cockerell: Pasteels 1965: 10.

Discussion. This subgenus is widespread in the Old World, and most diverse in Africa ( Michener 2000). Of the approximately 40 sub–Saharan species, 12 occur in southern Africa. They form three species–groups, each group comprises species that closely resemble one another based on the characters described below. M. cognata Smith is unique in southern Africa in that the male S4 is concave posteromedially with two pairs of papillae. The metasomal dorsum is uniformly orange. Females have an unmodified clypeus. Megachile ianthoptera Smith , M. angulata Smith , M. seewaldi Strand , M. dorsata Smith , M. discolor Smith, M. rufoscopacea Friese , M. serrula sp. n. form a species–group. The male S4 is narrowly concave posteromedially, without papillae. The metasomal dorsum is banded. The females have an unmodified clypeus. Generally the species are separated on the colour of the pubescence and the dentation of the male T5. Megachile cornigera Friese , M. braunsiana Friese and M. trichroma Friese are only known from females. They have the anterior region of the metasoma white, middle black and posterior region orange and the clypeus is tuberculate ventrolaterally. Colour and the size of the tubercles on the clypeus separate these three species.

Diagnosis. Large (9–15 mm); distal ends of fore and middle tibiae each with one small spine; T2–T4 with distinct preapical ridges; arolia absent; hind basitarsus slender (1:0.5).

Female. Length 12.5–14.5 mm; integument black; vestiture on vertex and discs of T2–T4 erect and separate giving a more or less black appearance; clypeus convex above, densely punctate, uniquely modified in a few species, not overhanging base of labrum; supraclypeus unmodified; mandible with 5 teeth, recessed cutting edges in second and third interspaces; vertex short, orbit–occiput:orbit–ocellus 1:0.8; gena long, orbit–ocellus:genal length 1: 1.3; hind basitarsus narrow, cylindrical.

Male. Length 9.3–11.1 mm; integument usually black, T6–T7 orange in M. seewaldi ; clypeus gently convex, short, clypeo-ocellus:clypeus 1:0.7; antennal flagellum convex ventrally; vertex short, orbit–occiput:orbit–ocellus 1:10; orbit-ocellus:gena length 1:1.0; mandible with three similar teeth, a large tubercle medially on ventral edge; forecoxa spinose; tarsi unmodified, without large fringes; T3–T5 with distinct preapical ridges.