Megachile (Chalepochile)

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Megachilini
Genus: Megachile Latreille, 1802
Subgenus: Chalepochile Gonzalez and Engel 2018
Common name: none

Overview

Megachile (Chalepochile) have a black and reddish-brown integument covered by somewhat sparse white, yellow, and brown hairs, although they have more dense yellow hair at the end of their abdomens (Gonzalez et al. 2018). Megachile (Chalepochile) males range in body length of 4–9 mm; the females are currently unknown (Gonzalez et al. 2018). The species in this subgenus had previously considered members of Megachile (Rhyssomegachile) prior to the description of Megachile (Chalepochile) by Gonzalez et al. (2018).

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Gonzalez et al. 2018)

Note: Only males are known from this subgenus.

Male preoccipital margin rounded.
Male front coxa lacks a spine.
Male mid femur has an area of short, blunt, uniform hairs on the dorsal posterior surface.
Male middle tibial spur present.
Male mid and hind basitarsi have a fringe of long setae.
Male scutum punctation is coarse and contiguous.
Male T6 preapical carina is strong and medially emarginate.

May be confused with

Male Megachile (Chalepochile) may be confused with bees within the subgenus Megachile (Rhyssomegachile) as both are small (4 to 5 mm) and have similar coarse punctation on the scutum (Gonzalez et al. 2018). Male Megachile (Chalepochile) can be differentiated from Megachile (Rhyssomegachile) by the rounded preoccipital margin in Megachile (Chalepochile) that is carinate in Megachile (Rhyssomegachile) (Gonzalez et al. 2018). They can also be differentiated by the length of the fringe of setae on the mid and hind basitarsus that is long in Megachile (Chalepochile) and short in Megachile (Rhyssomegachile) (Gonzalez et al. 2018).

Host associations

Megachile (Chalepochile) species have been observed visiting flowers of Fabaceae, Papaveraceae, and Verbenaceae (Schlindwein 1998; Gonzalez et al. 2018).

Nesting behavior

Although the nesting biology of Megachile (Chalepochile) is not yet known, they are considered members of Group 1, as defined by Michener, which typically construct nests in pre-existing cavities using pieces of cut leaves (Michener 2007; Gonzalez et al. 2019).