Species account taken from: "A Revision of the Genus Ashmeadiella (Hymen., Megachilidae) Author(s): Charles D. Michener Source: American Midland Naturalist,Vol. 22, No. 1 (Jul., 1939), pp. 1-84"
Ashmeadiella cockerelli Michener, 1936, Pan-Pac. Ent., 12:62, 8; Michener, 1936, Am. Mus. Nov., 875:15 (key).
This is a small, robust, black species, notable for the unusually sparse abdominal punctures..
Male: Inner margins of eyes converging toward clypeus except for lower parts which are subparallel; face nearly bare except for white pubescence on sides and on anterior margin of clypeus; mandibles reddish subapically; under side of flagellum brownish; anterior margin of clypeus with rather dis- tinct emargination, shorter than basal width of clypeus, demarked by distinct angles, margin of emargination shiny and impunctate; head rather coarsely and closely punctate, anterior part of clypeus finely and closely so, supra- clypeal area very closely so, cheeks more finely and sparsely so; cheeks slightly narrower than eyes, seen from side; anterior ocellus slightly posterior to mid- point between antennal bases and posterior edge of vertex; distance between posterior ocelli about equal to distance to nearest eye margin, distinctly less than distance to posterior edge of vertex. Scutum rather finely and closely punctate anteriorly, more coarsely and less closely punctate medially and posteriorly, some of punctures in center separated by nearly their diameters; scutum without pair of tufts of pubescence anteriorly; mesepisternum punctured like posterior part of scutum, punctures much sparser below; tegulae piceous; wings slightly dusky; apical segment of each tarsus brownish. Punctures of abdomen fine, nowhere approximate or as coarse as those of posterior part of scutum; punctures of abdomen coarsest on posterior tergites laterally, very fine on anterior tergites dorsally, those of first and second tergites dorsally separated by more than their diameters; posterior margins of tergites narrowly brownish; teeth of sixth tergite brownish, median ones broadly conical in outline, emargination between them broader than a semicircle; posterior margins of tergites one to five with inconspicuous bands of white pubescence. Length nearly 5 mm.
Type: male; Altadena, California, on loan deposit to California Academy of Sciences. This species is known only from the unique type
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