Megachile impressipuncta Alfken 1934
Creators: name: Praz, Christophe
name: Al-Shahat, Ahmed M.
name: Gadallah, Neveen S.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hymenoptera
Megachilidae
Megachile
Megachile impressipuncta

description: Megachile impressipuncta Alfken 1934   
Figs 20–23.  
 Megachile impressipuncta Alfken 1934: 151, ♀, “ Wadi Um Elek [Egypt]“. Holotype ♀, ZMHB.   
 Type material: Holotype ♀, a specimen in good condition: 1. “Wadi um Elek 28.7.31”. 2. “ Coll. Farag Egypt, Min. of Agriculture ”. 3. “Typus” [printed on red label]. 4. “ Megachile impressipuncta sp. nova det. J. D. Alfken 1933”. 5. “ Lectotype M. impressipuncta des. van der Zanden 1993” (ZMHB). Since Alfken (1934) refers to a single female, the designation of a lectotype is not necessary.   
 Additional material: MOROCCO: 1 ♀, Er Rachidia 15 km W, 1400 m, 4.7.1987, leg. M. Schwarz (CPCN); 1 ♀, Zagora, M. [Mitte = mid].6.[19]62, leg. W. Schläfle (CPCN); 1 ♂, 20 km E Tiznit, Assaka 29.690N 9.530W, 190 m NN, 16.06.2014, leg. C. Schmid-Egger ma16 (CPCN); 1 ♂, Val Draa, 80k. s. Zagora, Mhamid, 29.5.1995, leg. C. Schmid-Egger (CPCN); ISRAEL AND PALESTINE: 1 ♀, Hazeva Field School, 17.vii.1997, leg. A. Maklakov (SMNH); 1 ♂, Park Yeroham, 19.vii.2007, leg. Freiberg (SMNH).   
 Distribution: Egypt, Israel and Palestine, Morocco.   
 Diagnosis: Female: Megachile impressipuncta can be recognized using the following combination of morphological traits: body size approximately 12 mm; integument dark brown, except mandibles, antennae including scape, legs including all coxa and parts of T1 orange-red. Punctation diagnostic, as follows: on tergal discs, punctation moderately fine and sparse, interspaces 1–2 puncture diameters (Fig. 22); on mesonotum very fine and dense (Fig. 20); punctation on vertex very fine and dense, punctures comparable to those on mesonotum, interspaces much smaller than one puncture diameter; the vertex punctation is not visible unless the typical, dense vestiture is removed (Fig. 20). T2 but not T3 laterally with fovea. Clypeus apically with wide, impunctate shiny margin; disc of clypeus finely and densely punctate (Fig. 21). Vestiture predominantly white, scopa black on S6, vertex with dense, appressed, brown vestiture entirely obscuring cuticula.   
 Male: (First description): Body length 12 mm; integument dark brown, at least legs and sternites partly orange. T2 but not T3 with fovea. T6 with preapical carina strongly denticulate, strongly produced apically. Front tarsi unmodified, integument brown-orange, tarsal segments 2, 3 and 4 without dark maculations ventrally. Punctation on tergites moderately fine and dense; punctures on mesonotum similar in size to those on tergites, interspaces shiny, approximately 0.75 puncture diameter (Fig. 23); punctures on vertex comparatively fine and dense (Fig. 23).
description: Published as part of Praz, Christophe, Al-Shahat, Ahmed M. & Gadallah, Neveen S., 2021, Taxonomic revision of the subgenus Eutricharaea Thomson in Egypt, with a key to the species and the description of two new species (Hymenoptera, Anthophila Megachilidae, genus Megachile Latreille), pp. 301-330 in Zootaxa 5032 (3) on pages 312-313, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5032.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5494653