Megachile anatolica Rebmann, 1968

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 anatolica Rebmann, 1968

Figs 7-14

Megachile anatolica Rebmann, 1968: 37, ♂ nec ♀, "Mut [Turkey, approx. 36.64°N, 33.44°E]". Holotype ♂ (SMFD).

Material examined.

Type material. Holotype ♂ (SMFD) of M. anatolica (Fig. 11 ); one paratype ♀ (SMFD) examined is probably a female of M. inexspectata .

Other material.

104 specimens from the following countries: Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Iran, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey (Suppl. material 1) .

Distribution.

From Italy eastwards through the Levant including Lebanon, Turkey, Israel northwest of the Dead Sea, Iran; distribution in Central Asia remains to be established due to unclear relationship with M. viridicollis .

Geographic variation.

The species varies in the colour of the vestiture as well as in body size and in the length of the OOD. In Italy, Greece, Cyprus and western Turkey, the scopa is white (black on S6) and the OOD is large (Fig. 9 ). In the Levant the species presumably intergrades with M. leucostoma ; populations in northern Israel and northern Jordan have the scopa nearly entirely orange, as observed in eastern populations of M. leucostoma (see Praz et al. 2021). Moreover, the length of the OOD shows clinal variation from northern Israel (condition as in typical M. anatolica ) to Southern Israel (condition as in typical M. leucostoma ); specimens from Central Israel are intermediate ( Soltani et al. 2017: Fig. 6 ). In Iran, the scopa is white (black on S6), but specimens are smaller and the OOD short, as in M. leachella or M. pusilla . While in some Iranian populations the clypeus margin is denticulate, as in typical M. anatolica (Fig. 10 ), in other populations (e.g., in the region of Teheran), the clypeus is as in M. pusilla (cf. Fig. 64 ), making these populations superficially identical to M. pusilla , albeit genetically closer to M. anatolica. Whether the variation observed in Iran is the result of introgression with M. leucostoma , which has not been reported in Iran but is present on the Arabian Peninsula, e.g., in the United Arab Emirates, remains to be established.

Note.

The relationship between M. anatolica and the Central Asian species M. viridicollis is not clear; these two taxa may eventually be treated as conspecific, in which case M. anatolica would be placed in synonymy with M. viridicollis ; see under M. viridicollis .

Megachile argentata (Fabricius, 1793)

Figs 1 - 3 , 15-24

Figures

Figure 1. Vertex of the lectotype female of Megachile argentata (Fabricius, 1793), showing the ocelloccipital distance OOD (yellow line), two tangentials placed behind the lateral ocellus and along the inner margin of the compound eye (red lines), and the white rectangle with dimensions 1.1 x OOD x 0.55 x OOD within which the punctures were measured in our morphometric analyses.

Figure 6. Best tree found in maximum likelihood analyses of sequence data of the two nuclear genes lw rhodopsin and CAD showing the phylogenetic relationships among the Palaearctic species of the Megachile leachella group of Megachile (Eutricharaea). Bootstrap support values are based on 1000 bootstrap replicates. The oblique line along the branch joining the outgroup taxa and the ingroup indicates that this branch has been shortened for better graphic representation.

Figures 7 - 14. Megachile anatolica 7 female metasoma 8 female metasomal tergum 4 9 female vertex 10 apex of female clypeus 11 dorsal view of head of holotype male 12 front view of male head with distinct tooth behind mandibular base 13 male metasomal sterna 3 - 5 14 male genitalia.

Figures 61 - 66. Megachile pusilla 61 female metasoma 62 female metasomal tergum 4 63 female vertex 64 apex of female clypeus 65 dorsal view of male head 66 male genitalia.

Figures 2, 3. Lectotype female of Megachile argentata 2 dorsal view 3 head in front view.

Figures 15 - 24. Megachile argentata 15 female metasoma of northwestern African populations, M. argentata argentata 16 female metasoma of European, Levant, Turkey and Central Asian populations, M. argentata argentata 17 female metasoma of Malta populations, M. argentata schmiedeknechti 18 female metasoma of Corsican and Sardinian populations, M. argentata schmiedeknechti 19 female metasomal tergum 4 20 female vertex 21 apex of female clypeus 22 male front tarsi 23 male metasomal sterna 3 - 5 24 male genitalia.