Taxonomic studies on species belonging to subgenus Eutricharaea Thomson of the genus Megachile (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae)

Abstract

Solitary bees belonging to genus Megachile are important pollinators very crucial for the wellbeing of the ecosystem. Large scale surveying will return a wealth of spatio-temporal species data which is critical for systematics, taxonomy and conservation of biodiversity. Detailed taxonomic characterization of solitary bee species belonging to subgenus Eutricharaea collected from the Sutlej basin of Indian northern plains is being described. A total of four species viz. Megachile hera Bingham, M. femorata Smith, M. vera Cameron and M. argentata Cameron belonging to subgenus Eutricharaea with 18 examples were studied. Detailed morphological descriptions, zoogeographic records, specimen examined, floral associations with illustrations and morphological measurements have been provided. Various areas finalised from different parts of Sutlej basin of northern plains were surveyed for the first time for the documentation of Megachile fauna. Hence, all these four species are first records for the studied area.