Hoplitis mucida stecki elevated to species rank
Hoplitis mucida was considered to consist of two subspecies with H. mucida mucida (Dours 1873) ranging from northwestern Africa to Israel and Jordan and H. mucida stecki (Frey-Gessner 1908) occurring in southwestern Europe and Sicily. As described in a recent publication (Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 60, 99-109, 2017), the nesting biology of the two subspecies strikingly differs. In North Africa, females construct fully exposed, cake-like nests of mud on the flat surface of rocks and stones containing 8–12 vertically oriented brood cells, rendering these nests unique among osmiine bees regarding both nesting site and nest architecture. In contrast, in Europe females build their few-celled mud nests inside small rock cavities. This discrepancy in the nesting biology is paralleled by considerable morphological differences between the two subspecies suggestive of a long geographical isolation. Due to these biological and morphological differences, the European subspecies H. mucida stecki was elevated to species rank by the authors of the publication mentioned above.