Journal of Threatened Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2024 | 16(12): 26328–26330

 

ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print) 

https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8872.16.12.26328-26330

#8872 | Received 07 December 2023 | Final received 27 November 2024 | Finally accepted 10 December 2024

 

 

Megachile vera Nurse, 1901 (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): a new record of leaf cutter bee from Kerala, India

 

 Anju Sara Prakash 1   & C. Bijoy 2

 

1,2 Shadpada Entomology Research Lab (SERL), Christ College (Autonomous) [affiliated to University of Calicut], Irinjalakuda, Thrissur, Kerala 680125, India.

1 anjusara2025@gmail.com, 2 bijoyc@christcollegeijk.edu.in (corresponding author)

 

 

Editor: V.V. Belavadi, University of Agricultural Sceinces, Bengaluru, India.            Date of publication: 26 December 2024 (online & print)

 

Citation: Prakash, A.S. & C. Bijoy (2024). Megachile vera Nurse, 1901 (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae): a new record of leaf cutter bee from Kerala, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 16(12): 26328–26330. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8872.16.12.26328-26330

  

Copyright: © Prakash & Bijoy 2024. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the author(s) and the source of publication.

 

Funding: Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India [File No. 08/376(0008)/2019-EMR-I].

 

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

 

Acknowledgements: The authors express their gratitude towards the principal, Christ College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda for providing facilities for the research. We also acknowledge Dr. Sudhikumar A.V., head of the Department of Zoology and Centre for Animal Taxonomy and Ecology, Christ College (Autonomous), Irinjalakuda for providing the facilities for taking microscopic images of the specimen. The first author is thankful to Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), Government of India for financial support in the form of Senior Research Fellowship [File No. 08/376(0008)/2019-EMR-I].

 

 

Family Megachilidae is the third largest bee family in the world with 4,169 species and with 239 species records from India (Ascher & Pickering 2024). They are a family of bees with long-tongue just like the bees of family Apidae but the fore wing of Megachilidae has only two submarginal cells, except in Fideliini (Michener 2007). Genus Megachile Latreille, 1802 comprises of Leaf-cutter bees, resin bees and mason bees (Sardar et al. 2021). They are robust, non-metallic bees with tergal fasciae, and females of this genus bear abdominal scopa (Gupta 1993). Bees of this genus are excellent pollinators of many crops. Prakash & Bijoy (2022) recorded two new reports of Megachile bees from Kole wetlands of Kerala. In the present study, a specimen of Megachile vera Nurse, 1901 was collected from Palakkal which is a part of the Thrissur North Kole. A single female specimen of M. vera was caught in white pan trap that was kept in the study site during field day. This species has been reported from various states of India (Figure 1) including Rajasthan (Alwar, Deeg, Sikar, Kota, Udaipur) Haryana (Hisar, Sonipat), Gujarat (Deesa, Veeraval, Dantiwada), Punjab, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal (Gupta 1993; Kumari et al. 2019; Sardar et al. 2021; Ascher & Pickering 2024). According to Gupta (1993) the species, M. vera, belongs to subgenus Eutricharaea Thomson. But based on the latest update of world bee species guide and checklist the subgenus of the species is uncertain (Ascher & Pickering 2024). So, here we are not categorizing the species into subgenus level.

Detailed redescription of M. vera is provided here along with images. Species identification was done using original description by Nurse (1901) and subsequent detailed description by Gupta (1993). Labomed Luxeo 6z microscope was used for identification and Leica DMC4500 digital camera mounted on a Leica M205 C stereo microscope was used to take images of the specimen. This species is a new addition to the bee fauna of Kerala.

 

Megachile vera Nurse, 1901 (P.150)

Major diagnostic features of M. vera includes dull orange colouration beneath fore femora, apex of trochanter and femur of meso and metathoracic legs and terminally tapered, slightly upturned apex of abdomen.

Female: Total length: 11.09 mm

Head: Black with white pubescence; strongly punctate: white pubescence absent on middle region of clypeus, supra clypeus and vertex; clypeus with medio-longitudinal smooth line; supra clypeus impunctate; apical margin of clypeus with emarginations; scape, pedicel black, flagellomeres light brown; pedicel and F1 almost equal in length; F1 slightly shorter than F2; mandible 4 dentate, base covered with white pubescence, incomplete cutting edge in 2nd and complete cutting edge in 3rd interspace; gena with slightly yellowish-white pubescence; genal area close to mandible with long white branched hairs; vertex strongly punctate with incurved margin.

Mesosoma: Closely and coarsely punctate; scutum slightly convex, anterior and lateral margins with yellowish-white pubescence; disc of scutum and scutellum bare or with few yellowish-white hairs; scutellum slightly convex with rounded posterior margin; wings hyaline with brown veins; tegulae brown, finely punctate; propodeum finely and closely punctate, covered with long yellowish-white hairs; legs with white hairs except on the underside of tarsi; fulvous hairs on the underside of tarsi; fore femora underneath, apex of trochanter and femur of mid legs, trochanter and femur of hind legs dull orange; base of claws with setae.

Metasoma: Tapering towards posterior end and slightly upturned; black with fine, close punctures at base of tergal segments and coarse punctures towards apex; T1 covered with long yellowish white hairs; T2–T5 with yellowish-white fasciae; T6 with black hairs; T1–T5 laterally with long white hairs; T6 laterally with long black hairs; Sternum black except slightly brownish on the apical margins of S2–S5; scopal hairs on S2–S5 pale white; scopal hairs on S6 black; S6 finely punctate at base, coarsely towards apex; apical region with fringe of short black hairs.

Material examined: 1 female, 16.ii.2021, Palakkal, Thrissur (10.478735 °N, 76.21322 °E), White pan trap collection.

Remarks: This species resembles Megachile femoratella Cockerell, 1918 in having dull orange-coloured femora of legs. Unlike M. vera, M. femoratella doesn’t have terminally tapering abdomen.

 

 

For figure & images - - click here for full PDF

 

 

References

 

Ascher, J.S. & J. Pickering (2024). Discover Life Bee Species Guide and World Checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q. Accessed on November 2024.

Gupta, R.K. (1993). Taxonomic studies on the Megachilidae of north-western India (Insecta, Hymenoptera, Apoidea). Scientific Publishers, Jodhpur, 294 pp.

Kumari, P., N.R. Kumar, A.K. Sidhu & K. Chandra (2019). Taxonomic studies on species belonging to subgenus Eutricharaea Thomson of the genus Megachile (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Journal of Applied and Natural Science 11(3): 612–618.

Michener, C.D. (2007). The Bees of The World [2nd Edition].  Johns Hopkins University Press, London, 992 pp.

Nurse, C.G. (1901). New species of Indian Hymenoptera. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal LXX: 150.

Prakash, A.S. & C. Bijoy (2022). First reports of some Megachilid bees (Hymenoptera) from Kerala, India. Taprobanica 11(1): 40–41.

Sardar, S., N. Warrit, A. Rameshkumar & S.I. Kazmi (2021). New distributional records of Megachile Latreille, 1802 (Apoidea: Megachilidae) from Indian States. Records of the Zoological Survey of India 121(1): 23–29.