Megachile pyrenaica Lepeletier

Weissmann, Julie A., Picanco, Ana, Borges, Paulo A. V. & Schaefer, Hanno, 2017, Bees of the Azores: an annotated checklist (Apidae, Hymenoptera), ZooKeys 642, pp. 63-95 : 82

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.642.10773
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:E8512D08-5E22-4794-AE23-31FA1F1BD606
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/C16CA1A1-C631-E8AC-651D-D29E2AA8AB3A
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Megachile pyrenaica Lepeletier
status

Treatment

Megachile pyrenaica Lepeletier View in CoL

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).