Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Megachilini
Genus: Megachile Latreille, 1802
Subgenus: Acentron Mitchell, 1934
Common name: none
Megachile (Acentron) albitarsis are black bees with white, yellow, and/or black pubescence (Mitchell 1943). They range in body length from 11–13 mm (Mitchell 1943).
(modified from Mitchell 1937a; Mitchell 1943; Gonzalez et al. 2018)
Female Megachile (Acentron) may be confused with female bees within the subgenus Megachile (Leptorachina) with similar four-toothed mandibles with a small second interspace and mostly bare S6. Female Megachile (Acentron) can be differentiated by the wide gena and more robust mandible (Gonzalez 2018). Male Megachile (Acentron) are most similar to Megachile (Melanosarus) because they both lack tibial spurs on the middle legs and the modified front and middle tibia and tarsi. Megachile (Acentron) can be identified by the scutum, which has punctures that are dense enough that the punctures are not individually distinguishable and often by the presence of a spine on the coxa of the mid-leg (Gonzalez et al. 2018).
Megachile (Acentron) albitarsis is a generalist that has been observed visiting a variety of species in different plant families including: Anacardiaceae, Apiaceae, Apocynaceae, Arecaceae, Asteraceae, Eriocaulaceae, Fabaceae, Haemodoraceae, Lamiaceae, Orobanchaceae, Plantaginaceae, Polygonaceae, Rubiaceae, Xyridaceae, and Verbenaceae (Mitchell 1937a; Deyrup et al. 2002).
Megachile (Acentron) have been found nesting in pre-existing cavities including artificial trap-nests, where they make nest cells using cut leaves (Reyes-Novelo et al. 2009; Hall and Ascher 2010; Torretta et al. 2017; Santos et al. 2020).
Megachile (Acentron) includes eighteen species (Moure et al. 2012).
There are no known invasives.
Megachile (Acentron) occurs from the southern U.S. to Argentina, the majority of which are found in the tropics. One species, Megachile (Acentron) albitarsis, is native to the U.S. (Michener 2007).
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