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"
This extraordinary species is the sole representative of its subgenus. It is rather robust, with large head, black, the abdomen largely red.
Female: Inner margins of eyes diverging below; under side of flagellum reddish brown; base of clypeus strongly elevated to a sharp, transverse ridge; clypeus anterior to this ridge slightly swollen medially, smooth except for some fine roughening above, and with a few long hairs directed foreward and curved slightly downward; labrum long, bidentate at apex, base impunctate; mandibles with outer tooth longer than inner, transverse reddish band just basad to teeth; upper side of mandibles with a row of tufts of long, slightly curved hairs, directed inward; lower side of mandibles similarly furnished with hairs; lower ends of cheeks with long hairs curved anteriorly; cheeks as broad as eyes, seen from sides; gular groove greatly narrowed posteriorly by the expanded hypostomal carinae, each of which is produced nearly to a tooth posteriorly; anterior ocellus about midway between antennal bases and pos- terior edge of vertex; distance between posterior ocelli distinctly less than dis- tance to posterior edge of vertex; punctures of frons and vertex slightly sep- arated from one another. Scutum punctured about as vertex, anterior margin with indistinct pair of spots of hair; tegulae dark testaccous; mesepisterna somewhat more finely punctured than scutum; wings clear; hind femora and hind tibiae except outer side red; hind tibial spurs black, inner margin of inner spurs finely serrate, outer margin with about eight long teeth, most of which are longer than broad; outer hind tibial spurs with about six long, oblique teeth on each margin, those of outer margin smaller. Abdomen slightly more finely punctate than scutum; first tergite red, second to sixth red with median dorsal black areas, that of second indistinct and small, their size increasing posteriorly so that that of sixth tergite occupies about one-third of the tergite; first sternite largely red, others black, red laterally; tergites one to six with distinct, narrow, apical bands of pubescence; scopa white. Length 7 mm. (varying to just over 5 mm. in one paratype).
Holotype (Calif. Acad. Sci., Ent. No. 4748) and eight paratypes: Big Pine, Inyo County, California, June 8, 1937, on Parosela polyadenia (E. C. VanDyke, C. D. Michener). One paratype, Lone Pine, Inyo County, Cali- fornia, June 15, 1937, on Parosela polyadenia (C. D. Michener). Other speci- mens are from Lovelock, Nevada, June 9, 1933 (J. T. Howell); Olancha, Inyo County, California, May 26, 1937 (J. W. Johnson); about eight miles south of Victorville, California, May 22, 1932, on Lupinus odoratus (P. H. Timberlake); five miles east of Edom, California, April 10, 1937, on Parosela schottii (P. H. Timberlak
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