Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Syn: Megachile disparipennis Cockerell, 1917
Explanation of Names
Megachile (Neomegachile) chichimeca Cresson, 1878
Identification
According to references below, some hallmark traits of Megachile chichimeca are: it is small and slender; there are prominent tufts of white hairs located near the base of the bee’s wings; the back edge of the bee’s thorax is fringed with white hairs; the bee's wings are dusky near the back edges; females have a bump on the middle of the edge of the clypeus; males have three teeth on each jaw, with a wide middle tooth that is pointed on either side, so that it looks a little like two teeth; and the scopal hairs on the females' abdomens are white toward the front and rust-colored toward the back.
Life Cycle
male and female observed feeding together in s. TX on woolly croton (
Croton capitatus, Euphorbiaceae) (BG data)
Print References
Cockerell, Wilmatte P. “Collecting Bees in Southern Texas.” Journal of the New York Entomological Society, vol. 25.3 (1917): 187–193 at 192). [Megachile chichimeca appears under the name Megachile disparipennis]
(1)
Cresson, E. T. “Descriptions of new North American Hymenoptera in the collection of the American Entomological Society.” Transactions of the American Entomological Society, vol. 7 (1878): 61-136 at 97.
