Megachile (Ptilosaroides)

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Megachilini
Genus: Megachile Latreille, 1802
Subgenus: Ptilosaroides Mitchell, 1980
Common name: none

Overview

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) are bees with yellow wing bases, dusky costal margins on the forewings, and short, abundant, yellow hairs. They range in body length from 8–9 mm (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.; Gonzalez 2008Gonzalez 2008:
Gonzalez, V.H. 2008. Phylogeny and classification of the bee tribe Megachilini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Megachilidae), with emphasis on the genus Megachile. Thesis: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas: 1-274.)

• Female without a strong preoccipital carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  behind the genagena:
  the cheek or side of the head
  .
• Female thorax and abdomen are densely and minutely punctatepunctate:
  studded with tiny holes
  with sub-erect tomentumtomentum:
  a form of pubescence composed of short matted, woolly hair
  .
• Male front coxacoxa:
  the basal segment of the leg
  with a spine.
• Male front tarsitarsi:
  the group of segments at the end of the leg following the tibia
  are slender and black.
• Male mandiblemandible:
  bee teeth, so to speak, usually crossed and folded in front of the mouth
  is four-toothed.
• Male S6S6:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  with two spines.
• Male T6T6:
  the segments on the top side of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, or T7
  preapicalpreapical:
  referring to a section of a bee that is physically found just before the outermost (or apical) end of the section or segment
  carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  with two spines.

May be confused with

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) may be confused with bees within the subgenera Megachile (Ptilosarus) as they have similar wing coloration and both have short, abundant yellow hairs (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). Males can be differentiated from Megachile (Ptilosarus) by the presence of a spine on the front coxacoxa:
the basal segment of the leg
; females can be differentiated by the absence of both the strong preoccipital carinacarina:
a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
and the specialized hairs on the ventralventral:
of, on, or relating to the underside of an animal, or segment of an animal
surface of the thorax (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.; Raw 2007Raw 2007:
Raw, A. 2007. An annotated catalogue of the leafcutter and mason bees (genus Megachile ) of the Neotropics. Zootaxa 1601: 1-127.; Gonzalez 2008Gonzalez 2008:
Gonzalez, V.H. 2008. Phylogeny and classification of the bee tribe Megachilini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Megachilidae), with emphasis on the genus Megachile. Thesis: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas: 1-274.).

Host associations

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) have been observed visiting flowers of Fabaceae and Lamiaceae (Drumond and Cardoso 2003Drumond and Cardoso 2003:
Drumond, P. and G. Cardoso. 2003. As abelhas e a produccedil;atilde;o de sementes do amendoim forrageiro. Embrapa Acre-Comunicado Teacute;cnico (INFOTECA-E).; Muniz et al. 2013Muniz et al. 2013:
Muniz, J.M., A.L.C. Pereira, J.O. Valim, and W.G. Campos. 2013. Patterns and mechanisms of temporal resource partitioning among bee species visiting basil ( Ocimum basilicum ) flowers. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7(5): 491-502.).

Nesting behavior

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) nests in crevices, soil cracks, sand banks, termite burrows, and the abandoned nests of solitary bees, specifically Ptilothrix plumata and Diadasina distincta (Raw 2007Raw 2007:
Raw, A. 2007. An annotated catalogue of the leafcutter and mason bees (genus Megachile ) of the Neotropics. Zootaxa 1601: 1-127.; Gonzalez 2008). Nest cells are comprised of flower petals (Raw 2007Raw 2007:
Raw, A. 2007. An annotated catalogue of the leafcutter and mason bees (genus Megachile ) of the Neotropics. Zootaxa 1601: 1-127.).

Diversity

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) consists of two species (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.; Gonzalez 2008Gonzalez 2008:
Gonzalez, V.H. 2008. Phylogeny and classification of the bee tribe Megachilini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Megachilidae), with emphasis on the genus Megachile. Thesis: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas: 1-274.); none are known to occur in the U.S. or Canada.

Known invasives

There are no known invasives.

Distribution

Megachile (Ptilosaroides) is a NeotropicalNeotropical:
biogeographic region that includes South and Central America, the Caribbean Islands, southern Florida, and the southern Mexican lowlands
subgenus, and these bees range from southern Brazil to Panama (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

​Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.

References

Drumond, P. and G. Cardoso. 2003. As abelhas e a produção de sementes do amendoim forrageiro. Embrapa Acre-Comunicado Técnico (INFOTECA-E).

Gonzalez, V.H. 2008. Phylogeny and classification of the bee tribe Megachilini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Megachilidae), with emphasis on the genus Megachile. Thesis: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and the College of Liberal Arts and Science of the University of Kansas: 1-274.

Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.

Muniz, J.M., A.L.C. Pereira, J.O. Valim, and W.G. Campos. 2013. Patterns and mechanisms of temporal resource partitioning among bee species visiting basil (Ocimum basilicum) flowers. Arthropod-Plant Interactions 7(5): 491-502.

Raw, A. 2007. An annotated catalogue of the leafcutter and mason bees (Genus Megachile) of the Neotropics. Zootaxa 1906: 1-127.