COMPLETE STING MORPHOLOGY OF Megachile anthracina Smith, 1853 AND Megachile disjuncta (Fabricius, 1781)
SYED NAJEER E. NOOR KHADRI
*
Department of Agricultural Entomology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru 560065, Karnataka, India.
RABIYA BEGUM
Department of Studies and Research in Zoology, Gulbarga University, Kalaburagi 585105, Karnataka, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The present investigation was carried out to understand the sting morphology of Megachile anthracina and Megachile disjuncta. It was observed that most of the examined characters were similar in both species. The sting shaft was found to be straight and pointed. The lancets of M. anthracina and M. disjuncta had 8 and 7 barbs, respectively. For the first time an attempt has been made to describe the sclerites of these two species. It provides preliminary understanding regarding morphology and structure of sting of former species but this kind of studies provide more detailed information which can be utilized for taxonomy and interdisciplinary research.
Keywords: Behaviour, lancet, megachilidae, sting, taxonomy