Palaearctic Osmiine Bees

Author: muelandr

  • 7 Palaearctic osmiine bee species newly described

    Three articles in Zootaxa have recently been published dealing with the biology and taxonomy of Hofferia and Stenoheriades (Zootaxa, 3765, 175-186, 2014), of Hoplitis (Stenosmia) (Zootaxa, 3765, 301-316, 2014) and of Hoplitis (Chlidoplitis) and Hoplitis (Megahoplitis) (Zootaxa, 3765, 161-174, 2014). Seven new species are described: Stenoheriades levantica spec. nov., Hoplitis (Stenosmia) desertorum spec. nov. and Hoplitis (Chlidoplitis) allii spec. nov. from the Levant, Hoplitis (Stenosmia) crassipunctata spec. nov., Hoplitis (Stenosmia) dispersipunctata spec. nov. and Hoplitis (Chlidoplitis) haplophylli spec. nov from Central Asia, and Hoplitis (Stenosmia) gobiensis spec. nov from the Gobi desert.

  • 3 new Palaearctic Protosmia species

    In a recent paper (Journal of Melittology, 20, 1-9, 2013), T.L. Griswold describes three new species of Protosmia (Nanosmia) from the Palaearctic region: P. hamulifera spec. nov. from the Arabian peninsula, P. schwarzi spec. nov. from the Maghreb and P. trifida spec. nov. from Turkey.

  • Nesting biology of Haetosmia uncovered

    In a recent paper by Gotlieb et al. in American Museum Novitates (3808, 1-20, 2014), nests, floral preferences and immatures of Haetosmia vechti are described. Interestingly, H. vechti was found in Israel to nest in excavated burrows in sandy soil and to build urn-shaped brood cells from masticated leaves.

  • Erroneous synonymization

    As recently noticed by Ivanov et al. (2013), the synonymization of Pseudosmia taurica Radoszkowski, 1874 with Osmia dimidiata Morawitz, 1870 by Ungricht et al. (2008) is erroneous. P. taurica is a member of Hoplitis (Anthocopa) and appears to be closely related to Hoplitis bisulca (Gerstaecker, 1869).

  • New osmiine bee species in France

    Matthieu Aubert and Christophe Philippe discovered Hoplitis (Hoplitis) lithodorae in southern France near Montpellier in spring 2013 and at other places in the Aude and Bouches du Rhone provinces in 2014. This species was hitherto known only from a small area in southwestern Spain (Müller, 2012). Flowers of Lithodora fruticosa were very common at the sites of H. lithodorae in southern France, suggesting that the species is indeed a Lithodora oligolege.

  • Phylogeny of three subgenera of Osmia

    Recently, a combined molecular and morphological phylogeny of the three closely related Osmia subgenera (Monosmia, Osmia, Orientosmia) has been published in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (Haider et al., 2013).

  • Evolution of host range in three subgenera of Osmia

    A recent paper in the Biological Journal of the Linnean Society by Haider et al. (2013) report on the host range evolution in Osmia bees of the subgenera Monosmia, Osmia and Orientosmia.

  • Changes in subgeneric classification 5

    A recent study (Haider et al., 2013) on the phylogeny and floral hosts of Osmia bees of the subgenera Monosmia, Osmia and Orientosmia revealed paraphyly of the largest subgenus Osmia. Given this paraphyly in conjunction with the pronounced morphological resemblance among the species of all three subgenera, the authors propose to to merge Monosmia (1 species), Osmia (25 species) and Orientosmia (3 species) into one single large subgenus Osmia.

  • New species records 13

    The examination of osmiine bee material received from the Oberösterreichische Landesmuseum Linz revealed the following new country records:

    Afghanistan: Osmia (Metallinella) brevicornis

    Albania: Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) pomarina

    Armenia: Hoplitis (Hoplitis) manicata

    Bulgaria: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) grossepunctata, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) nicolaei, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) pallicornis

    Croatia: Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) laevifrons

    Iran: Hoplitis (Hoplitis) carinata, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) strymonia

    Kyrgyzstan: Hoplitis (Formicapis) latifemoralis

    Madeira (Portugal): Osmia (Helicosmia) niveata

    Romania: Hoplitis (Micreriades) mazzuccoi

    Syria: Osmia (Osmia) cornuta quasirufa, Osmia (Tergosmia) rhodoensis

     

  • New synonymies 14

    Based on the type material, Heriades (Michenerella) dalmatica Maidl, 1922 is a junior synonym of Heriades (Michenerella) punctulifera Schletterer, 1889. Apart from the colour of the antenna, which is often yellowish in specimens from the Balkans and usually brownish in specimens from Turkey and the Near East, individuals from Europe and Asia exactly correspond to each other morphologically in both the female and the male sex.