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Megachile dentitarsus Sladen, 1919

Properties

Scientific Name: Megachile dentitarsus Sladen, 1919

Common Name: Tooth-legged Leafcutter Bee

Taxonomy

Megachile diligens Sladen, 1918: 125 [♂, ♀]. Preoccupied, not Megachile diligens Smith, 1879.

     Neotype ♂, selected here. CANADA, Medicine Hat, 1 August 1917, by F.W.L. Sladen, on alfalfa [CNC no. 386].

Megachile dentitarsus Sladen, 1919: 85. New name for Megachile diligens Sladen, 1918.

 

Taxonomic notes: Sladen (1918a: 125-126) proposed M. diligens for specimens identified as M. latimanus by Cockerell from Lethbridge, Alberta on 28 June, 1914 [cited as M. latimanus Cockerell (not Say); which he obviously thought were incorrectly identified]; this is menioned in Gibson (1917: 163), though Cockerell had previous indentified material from western Canada in the British Museum from BC and Calgary, AB (Cockerell 1912: 354) and Regina, SK (Cockerell 1911: 33) as M. latimanus. In that work, Sladen (1918a) provides the name and photographs, but does not clearly distinguish type specimens, or a type locality. Mitchell (1936: 128-129) indicated that H.L. Viereck designated a male lectotype [indicated as a holotype] and paraallotype [indicated as a female allotype] for M. diligens, with the information provided above, but indicated that these cannot be considered the “types” as the location and dates of the selected specimens (i.e., Medicine Hat, Alberta; 1 August 1917) do not correspond to those mentioned with the original work (i.e., Sladen 1918: 125 mentions Redcliff and Lethbridge Alberta, and the dates of July 14, 17, and 31, 1917). Published later that same year, Sladen (1918b) also did not clearly identify species when discussing M. diligens. Thus, Mitchell (1936: 129) indicated that the specimens selected by Viereck cannot be type material, stating then can only be considered topotypes; however, though the specimens were collected and identified by Sladen, they were collected in Medicine Hat.

DNA Barcode Index Number (BIN): BOLD:AAE8851

Distribution in Canada: Sladen 1918 [AB]; Sheffield et al. 2014 [AB, SK]; Pindar 2014 [ON] - misidentified; Onuferko et al. 2023 [AB, SK]

 

References

Cockerell TDA (1912) Canadian bees in the British Museum. The Canadian Entomologist 44(12): 354-358.https://doi.org/10.4039/Ent44354-12

Mitchell TB (1936) A revision of the genus Megachile in the Nearctic region. Part IV. Taxonomy of the subgenera Xanthosarus, Phaenosarus, Megachiloides and Derotropis (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society 62(2): 117-166.https://www.jstor.org/stable/2507737

Cockerell TDA (1911) Some bees from western Canada. The Canadian Entomologist 43(1): 33-34.https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.4039/Ent4333-1

Sheffield CS, Frier SD, Dumesh D (2014) The bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea, Apiformes) of the Prairies Ecozone, with comparisons to other grasslands of Canada. In: Giberson DJ, Cárcamo HA (Eds) Arthropods of Canadian Grasslands (Volume 4): Biodiversity and Systematics Part 2. 4. Biological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, 479 pp. [ISBN 978-0-9689321-7-9].https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.3752/9780968932179.ch11

Sladen FWL (1918) Pollination of alfalfa by bees of the genus Megachile. The Agricultural Gazette 5(2): 125-126.

Sladen FWL (1919) Further notes on the latimanus group of the bee genus Megachile. The Canadian Entomologist 51(4): 85. https://doi.org/10.4039/Ent5185a-4

Onuferko TM, Buck M, Gibbs J, Sokoloff PC (2023) Asymmetric responses by bees and aculeate wasps to dune stabilisation across the southern Canadian prairies Insect Diversity and Conservation 16: https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.12659

Pindar AN (2014) The effect of fire disturbance on bee community composition in Oak Savannah habitat in southern Ontario, Canada. PhD Thesis, York University, Toronto. xiv + 160 pp.chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/server/api/core/bitstreams/503fc3a3-cf10-4b6b-85a2-229f7675c164/content

Sociality: Solitary
Nesting: Ground
Pollen Specialization: Polylectic
Wintering Stage: Mature Larva

Crop Preference: Not Available
Non Crop Preference: Not Available

Distribution: Alberta, Saskatchewan
Ecozone: Prairie