Megachile leachella leachella Curtis, 1928

Praz, Christophe J. & Benon, Dimitri, 2023, Revision of the leachella group of Megachile subgenus Eutricharaea in the Western Palaearctic (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Megachilidae): A renewed plea for DNA barcoding type material, Journal of Hymenoptera Research 95, pp. 143-198 : 143

Megachile leachella leachella Curtis, 1928

Megachile leachella Curtis, 1828: [explanation to Plate 218], [sex not indicated], “[England]”.

Megachile dorsalis Pérez 1879: 223, ♀ nec ♂, "Bordeaux; environs de l’étang de Cazaux; Arcachon; Royan [France]". Lectotype ♀, by designation of van der Zanden (1996: 886) (MNHN).

Megachile bioculata Pérez, 1902: 119, ♀ [erroneously indicated as ♂], "Catalogne [Spain: Catalonia]". Lectotype ♀, by present designation (see below) (MNHN).

Megachile argentata var. fossoria Ferton, 1909: 550, [sex not indicated], "Propriano [France, Corsica]". Lectotype ♀, by designation of Schwarz & Gusenleitner (2011: 258) (MNHN); paralectotypes ♀ ♂ (MNHN).

Megachile ichnusae Rebmann, 1968: 31, ♂ nec ♀, "Sardinien, Siniscola" [Italy, Sardinia, approx. 40.58 N, 9.70 E]. Holotype ♂, (SMFD). New synonymy.

Megachile discriminata Rebmann, 1968: 34, ♂, "Turkestan, 189., Golodnaja Step. [Uzbekistan]". Holotype ♂ (ZMHB); paratype ♂ (SMFD). New synonymy.

Megachile leachella maadiensis van der Zanden, 1986: 67, ♂, "[no locality given: Egypt]". Details on type material or type locality not given.

Material examined.

Type material. Lectotype ♀ (MNHN) of M. dorsalis (see also Gogala 1998; Schwarz and Gusenleitner 2011).

Lectotype ♀ (MNHN) of M. bioculata , a female specimen labeled as follows: 1. [red, circular disc]; 2. “Barcelone” [handwritten, handwriting of Pérez]; 3. " Megachile bioculata JP" [handwritten, handwriting probably of Pérez]; 4. “Muséum Paris Coll. J. Pérez 1915" [printed]; 5. Lectotype Megachile bioculata Pérez des. C. Praz 2022" [printed and handwritten on red paper]. 6. MNHN Pérez EY2292 [catalogue of type MNHN]. 7. Megachile leachella det. C. Praz 2022 [printed and handwritten].

Lectotype ♀ (MNHN) of M. argentata var. fossoria (see also Schwarz and Gusenleitner 2011).

Holotype ♂ (SMFD) of M. ichnusae (SMFD). The female paratype is a female of M. fertoni .

Holotype ♂ (ZMHB) and paratype ♂ (SMFD) of M. discriminata .

Other material.

174 specimens from the following countries: Croatia, Egypt, UK, France, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, North Macedonia , Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, Uzbekistan (Suppl. material 1) .

Distribution.

Widely distributed in Europe from Portugal, Spain, France, north to the UK, Scandinavia, northern, central, southern and eastern Europe, Levant (Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel), Iran, central Asia. We have examined specimens of the nominal subspecies from Chios, Lesvos, Rhodos and Santorini, but from no other Aegean Islands (see above for the populations of Crete and Cyprus). Highly similar (>98% similarity) DNA barcodes from unidentified specimens from the Beijing Region (Genbank accession number KC560312; Chesters et al. 2013) strongly suggests the presence of this species in China.

Geographic variation.

See above (species delimitation).