John S. Ascher (American Museum of Natural History) recently pointed out that B. Tkalcu has described a subspecies of Osmia signata from the island of Rhodos (Greece), which was not yet listed in the catalogue by Ungricht et al. (2008). O. signata rhodia has now been included in the Palaearctic osmiine bee website.
Author: muelandr
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New results of pollen analytical studies 1
Results of the microscopical analysis of 241 pollen samples from 76 osmiine bee species were incorporated into the species accounts. For the following 12 species, the first pollen samples became available: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) grossepunctata, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) alba, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) wahrmani, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) zaianorum, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) latuspilosa, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) linguaria, Osmia (Erythrosmia) erythrogastra, Osmia (Helicosmia) lazulina, Osmia (Hemiosmia) anceps, Osmia (Neosmia) scutispina, Osmia (Neosmia) tingitana and Osmia (Osmia) emarginata.
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New species records 3
Several samples of osmiine bees received from M. Schwarz, F. Gusenleitner, A. Dorchin, C. Praz and C. Sedivy revealed the following new country records:
Azerbaijan: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) leucomelana, Hoplitis (Annosmia) annulata crenulata, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) agis, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) carinata
Bulgaria: Osmia (Osmia) cerinthidis
Iran: Hoplitis (Annosmia) mutica, Hoplitis (Annosmia) uncaticornis, Hoplitis (Chlidoplitis) illustris, Hoplitis (Hoplitis) flabellifera, Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) minor, Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) tringa, Osmia (Helicosmia) aeruginosa, Osmia (Helicosmia) chrysaetos, Osmia (Helicosmia) dives, Osmia (Helicosmia) fasciata, Osmia (Orientosmia) maxillaris scheherazade, Osmia (Pyrosmia) cyanoxantha, Osmia (Pyrosmia) dilaticornis, Osmia (Pyrosmia) laticauda, Osmia (Pyrosmia) saxicola, Osmia (Pyrosmia) viridana
Israel and Palestine: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) acuticornis, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) agis, Osmia (Helicosmia) melanogaster, Osmia (Helicosmia) saxatilis, Osmia (Tergosmia) rhodoensis
Morocco: Heriades (Heriades) truncorum, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) batyamae, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) longispina
Portugal: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) tridentata, Osmia (Tergosmia) tergestensis
Syria: Hoplitis (Annosmia) mutica, Hoplitis (Prionohoplitis) curvipes, Osmia (Hoplosmia) distinguenda, Osmia (Pyrosmia) dilaticornis
Tunisia: Heriades (Heriades) fertoni, Hoplitis (Alcidamea) tricolor, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) ilamana, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) oxypyga, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) rubricrus, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) saundersi, Hoplitis (Anthocopa) zaianorum, Hoplitis (Prionohoplitis) epeoliformis, Osmia (Erythrosmia) sparsipuncta, Osmia (Hoplosmia) scutellaris, Osmia (Metallinella) brevicornis subcyanea, Osmia (Osmia) emarginata infuscata, Wainia (Caposmia) eremoplana
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Hoplitis mazzuccoi new for Slovenia
Gogala (2009b) recorded Hoplitis (Micreriades) mazzuccoi for the first time in Slovenia.
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Biology of Ozbekosmia and Tergosmia
In a recent paper, Rozen et al. (2010) describe the nesting biology, floral preferences and immature stages of Osmia avosetta, the only representative of the subgenus Ozbekosmia, and compare its biology with that of three Tergosmia species, which are closely related to O. avosetta: Osmia lunata, O. rhodoensis and O. tergestensis.
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New species records 2
Three samples of bees from Israel (collected by A. Dorchin), Crete (collected by U. Frommer) and Morocco (collected by M. Snizek) revealed first records of Osmia (Erythrosmia) erythrogastra and Osmia (Osmia) bicornis for Israel, Chelostoma (Foveosmia) hellenicum and Heriades (Heriades) rubicola for Crete, and Osmia (Helicosmia) dimidiata for Northern Africa.
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Osmia melanogaster reared from a snail shell
Stefan Werner reared a female of Osmia (Helicosmia) melanogaster from a snail shell collected on the island of Mallorca in 2001. This observation supports earlier findings that this species occasionally uses empty snail shells as nesting sites.
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Biology of osmiine bees from far eastern Russia
Tatiana Romankova kindly contributed flower records as well as information on the nesting biology of several species from far eastern Russia, i.e. Osmia (Osmia) opima, Osmia (Osmia) pedicornis, Osmia (Osmia) taurus, Osmia (Helicosmia) orientalis and Hoplitis (Formicapis) maritima.
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Hoplitis uncaticornis does not occur in Greece
The mention of Hoplitis (Annosmia) uncaticornis as occurring in Greece by Ungricht et al. (2008) is erroneous. The reexamination of the Greek material attributed to H. uncaticornis revealed that these specimens belong to a still undescribed species (or subspecies) close to Hoplitis (Annosmia) gentilis.
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Osmia ariadne new for Turkey
Osmia (Osmia) ariadne was known only from Crete so far. In a sample of bees collected by B. Merz near Antalya, the species was newly recorded for Turkey.