Megachile (Chalicodoma) albocristata Smith, 1853

Risch, Stephan, Roberts, Stuart P. M., Smit, Jan, Wood, Thomas J., Michez, Denis & Reverté, Sara, 2023, The new annotated checklist of the wild bees of Europe (Hymenoptera: Anthophila), Zootaxa 5327 (1), pp. 1-147 : 63

Megachile (Chalicodoma) albocristata Smith, 1853 , M. hungarica Mocsáry, 1877 , M. lefebvrei ( Lepeletier,

1841), M. lucidifrons Ferton, 1905 and M. roeweri (Alfken, 1927)

This group includes five taxa in Europe, known as the lefebvrei group ( Praz 2017): Megachile albocristata Smith, 1853 , M. hungarica Mocsáry, 1877 , M. lefebvrei ( Lepeletier, 1841) (with the subspecies M. lefebvrei albida Pérez, 1897 ), M. lucidifrons Ferton, 1905 and M. roeweri (Alfken, 1927) . The status of these five taxa requires further investigation. They differ in the colour of the vestiture and the nature of the tergal fasciae in the female sex (see Fateryga & Proshchalykin 2020): in Megachile lefebvrei , the vestiture is predominantly grey-white and the tergal fasciae are interrupted medially; in M. albocristata , the vestiture is predominantly black, sometimes with spots of white hairs laterally on the tergites; M. lucidifrons is similar to the latter, but the vestiture is entirely black; in M. hungarica , the vestiture is grey-white and the tergal fasciae are continuous; M. roeweri is similar to M. hungarica but the vestiture is predominantly brown. Each taxon has a distinct geographic distribution: in the narrow sense, M. lefebvrei is present in northern Africa and on the Iberian Peninsula (subspecies albida: Ortiz-Saìnchez et al. 2012), and possibly in southern France ( Benoist 1940); M. roeweri on the islands of Crete and Cyprus; M. albocristata in south-eastern Europe ( Greece, Balkans, Italy) and as far east as Crimea ( Fateryga & Proshchalykin 2020); M. lucidifrons in Sardinia and Corsica; and M. hungarica in central Europe ( Slovakia, parts of Greece, Hungary, Ukraine), but also in the Levant ( Tkalců 1973). Some authors have considered one widely distributed, geographically variable species, M. lefebvrei (e.g. Fateryga et al. 2018). While Megachile lefebvrei , M. lucidifrons and M. roeweri have clearly delimited geographic distributions, M. hungarica and M. albocristata have a parapatric distribution in south-east Europe; in addition, the disjunct presence of M. albocristata on Crimea suggests that both taxa may have overlapping ranges. Based on this distribution pattern and the narrow contact zone in south-east Europe, Tkalců (1973) advocates for the recognition of M. albocristata , M. hungarica and M. lefebvrei as distinct species. In addition, he mentions subtle, but constant sculptural differences among these taxa, without giving further details. By contrast Fateryga and Proshchalykin (2020) mention that the populations from Dagestan are intermediate between Megachile albocristata and M. hungarica . Future work is needed to settle the status of the taxa allied to M. lefebvrei in Europe (Praz et al., in prep.), and for now these five taxa are treated as separate species.