Austrothurgus

• previous
 
• next

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Lithurgini
Genus: Austrothurgus Gonzalez and Engel, 2013
Subgenera: none
Common name: none

Overview

Austrothurgus are robust, black bees that range in body length from 10–15 mm (Gonzalez et al. 2013). The head, thorax, and abdomen are generally black, and they have white to brown apical bands of setae on the terga. T6 of females is covered with reddish-brown setae (Gonzalez et al. 2013).

Diversity

Austrothurgus contains 3 species worldwide (Gonzalez et al. 2013); none are known to occur in the U.S or Canada.

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Gonzalez et al. 2013)

• Abdomen with hair bands complete (Fig 3).
• First flagellomere 1.5 times longer than broad and nearly twice as broad as the second flagellomere (Fig 5).
• Hind tibia sculpturing coarsely tuberculate.
• Female arolia absent.
• Female facial prominence mostly involving the base of the clypeus (Fig 4).
• Male arolia present on all tarsi (Fig 6).
• Male with distinct carina on inner surface of metabasitarsus (Fig 6).

May be confused with

Austrothurgus looks like Lithurgus and Lithurgopsis, however, they can be distinguished from one another by the characteristics listed above (Gonzalez et al. 2013).

Known invasives

There are no known invasives.

Host associations

Floral associations are unknown.

Nesting behavior

Distribution

Austrothurgus is endemic to Australia (Gonzalez et al. 2013).

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