Megachile (Eutrichaeae) atlantica Benoist, 1934

Risch, Stephan, Roberts, Stuart P. M., Smit, Jan, Wood, Thomas J., Michez, Denis & Reverté, Sara, 2023, The new annotated checklist of the wild bees of Europe (Hymenoptera: Anthophila), Zootaxa 5327 (1), pp. 1-147 : 63

Megachile (Eutrichaeae) atlantica Benoist, 1934

Megachile atlantica Benoist, 1934 , syn. nov. of Megachile (Eutricharaea) giraudi Gerstäcker, 1869 . This widely distributed taxon shows some geographic variation in the colour of the vestiture. In western Europe [ Spain, France and in the Susa Valley (type locality of M. giraudi ; see lectotype designation in Praz 2017: 9)], the scopa is dark on S5 and S6, white on S2–S4. In eastern Europe (populations sometimes delineated as “ M. bicoloriventris Mocsáry, 1878 ”) and in southern Italy, the scopa is nearly entirely dark, white only on S2 and medially on S3. North-western African populations are as the western European ones, except that the entire body vestiture (except the scopa) is orange-red. Benoist (1934) described M. atlantica based on a single female specimen from Morocco (holotype, MNHN). He then described the male of M. atlantica , pointing to some minor differences compared to M. giraudi ( Benoist 1940) . Zanden (1989: 80) treats M. atlantica as a valid species and reports it from Sicily and Algeria. Upon inspection of additional specimens from the entire range of M. giraudi , these minor morphological differences fall within the range of variation observed within M. giraudi , and M. atlantica syn. nov. is placed in synonymy with M. giraudi .

Material examined. Lectotype of M.giraudi (see Praz 2017: 9); Holotype of M. atlantica : ♀, labelled as follows: 1. “Ras El Ma, 21.vi.28” [handwritten]. 2. “ atlantica ” [handwritten, handwriting of R. Benoist]; 3. ”Muséum Paris Coll. R. Benoist” [printed]; 4. ” Holotype M. atlantica Ben. det. Zanden 1996”.

Taxonomic acts and clarifications