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Ashmeadiella titusi Michener, 1939
Life   Insecta   Hymenoptera   Apoidea   Megachilidae   Ashmeadiella
Subgenus: Ashmeadiella


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Overview
This species is closely related to femorata, from which it differs by the light rufotestaceous tegulae, the red middle as well as hind femora, the slightly coarser punctation, and the feebly concave clypeal emargination in the female. The distribution of the two species appears also to be different, titusi occur- ring west of the southern California mountains, femorata in the deserts east of them. These are the only species in which the hind tibial spurs are robust, curved, and very coarsely toothed.


Female: Inner margins of eyes slightly converging below; facial line shorter than transfacial; under side of flagellum dark brown; punctures of head close and rather fine, those of clypeus and supraclypeal area slightly coarser than those of rest of head; clypeal truncation slightly concave, demarked by rather distinct angles, shorter than distance from its ends to eye margin, margin between these two points somewhat convex, margin of truncation shining and impunctate, although somewhat longitudinally wrinkled; mandibles with reddish subapical band, distance from first to third tooth much less than greatest breadth of eye, nearly as great as length of last three antennal segments together; cheeks nearly as wide as eyes seen from side, more finely punctate than vertex; anterior ocellus behind midpoint between antennal bases and posterior edge of vertex; distance between posterior ocelli about equal to distance to posterior edge of vertex and to eye. Scutum with- out pair of pubescent spots anteriorly, its punctures, especially posteriorly, distinctly larger than those of vertex and separated by shiny surface; mesepis- terna with punctation similar to but slightly sparser than that of scutum; wings slightly dusky; tegulae light rufotestaceous; middle and hind femora red, hind tibiae red except on outer side; hind metatarsi red on inner side, and reddish outside, especially basally (one paratype has fore femora and inner sides of fore and -middle tibiae also partly reddish); hind tibial spurs robust, red, strongly curved apically; inner- margin of inner hind tibial spurs with about six large teeth, outer margin with about six teeth, the first rather small, others very large and long; inner margin of outer spur with about two rather large teeth, outer margin with about four oblique teeth. Abdominal tergites rather strongly punctate, punctures even on dorsum of second tergite separated by a little less than their diameters; tergites one to five with apical bands of white pubescence and with apical margins rufotestaceous. Length 5V2mm. (paratypes varying from 5 to 6 mm.)


Male: Similar to female; clypeus with shallow apical emargination, about one-half as long as basal width of clypeus, demarked by distinct angles; punc- tures of clypeus and supraclypeal area slightly finer than those of vertex; cheeks distinctly narrower than eyes, seen from side. Mesepisternum with punctures finer than those of scutum and rather widely separated; hind tibial spurs apparently similar to those of femorata, but red. Abdomen more coarse- ly punctate than in female; lateral teeth of sixth tergite reddish, longer than broad, acutely angulate; median teeth subparallel sided, nearly twice as broad as long, concavity between them longer than a semicircle. Length nearly 5mm


Holotype female, Riverside, California, April 30, 1928, on Lotus scoparius (P. H. Timberlake). Paratypes: same locality, one on May 22, 1929, on Phacelia ramosissima, one on May 24, 1928, on Lotus scoparius (P. H. Timberlake). Allotype male, Mill Creek, San Bernardino Mountains, about 2000 feet elevation, on Helianthus gracilentus (P. H. Timberlake).

Names
Scientific source:

Supported by

Hosts · map
FamilyScientific name @ source (records)
Boraginaceae  Phacelia ramosissima @ UCRC_ENT (1)
Fabaceae  Acmispon glaber @ UCRC_ENT (3)

Prosopis juliflora @ UCRC_ENT (1)
_  Withheld @ BBSL (25)

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Updated: 2024-04-26 12:06:31 gmt
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