Megachile (Eutricharea) maculariformis

    Gold-tipped Leafcutter

Size
female 12 mm; male 10 mm

Identifying Characteristics
A robust species with orange hair on both the face and end of the abdomen, though the facial hair becomes paler with age. Females have the broad, leaf-shaped abdomen of leaf-cutters and the male has a bulbous orange swelling on the fore tarsus (foot).

Distinctive Features
In 1930 Cockerell thought this was the same species as M. chrysopyga, but it is now known that the latter species is found in Western Australia and the male does not have the orange swelling on the foreleg. No other female in the area has orange hair on both the face and tip of the abdomen together with 4 white hair bands.

Flower Visiting Records

Angophora hispida	Boronia microphylla	Bossaeia heterophylla
Corymbia spp.	Crotalaria eremea	Darwinia fascicularis
Dillwynia spp.	Echium lycopsis	Eriostemon australasius
Glycine microphylla	Gompholobium grandiflorum	Goodenia cycloptera
Grevillea sericea	Kunzea ambigua	Leptospermum spp.
Mirbelia platylobiodes	Persoonia spp.	Phyllota spp.
Pultenaea spp.

Taxonomy

Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Megachilidae
Genus:	Megachile
Subgenus:	Eutricharea
Species:	maculariformis