Palaearctic Osmiine Bees

In a recent paper (Journal of the Swiss Entomological Society, 85, 27-53, 2012), a new Palaearctic species of the subgenus Orientosmia is described, and the reexamination of the three currently recognized subspecies of Osmia (Orientosmia) maxillaris Morawitz, 1874 revealed that O. m. scheherezade Peters, 1978 is identical to O. m. dinazade Peters, 1978, syn. n. and that O. m. scheherezade deserves species rank: O. scheherezade Peters, 1978.

In a recent publication in Zootaxa (3355, 29-50, 2012), 15 new European osmiine bee species are described: Hoplitis (Alcidamea) occidentalis spec. nov., Hoplitis (Anthocopa) peniculifera spec. nov., Hoplitis (Hoplitis) hilbera spec. nov., Hoplitis (Hoplitis) lithodorae spec. nov. and Hoplitis manuelae spec. nov. from Spain; Chelostoma (Chelostoma) siciliae spec. nov. from Sicily; Chelostoma (Foveosmia) incognitum spec. nov., Chelostoma (Foveosmia) longifacies spec. nov., Chelostoma (Gyrodromella) aegaeicum spec. nov., Hoplitis (Annosmia) monticola spec. nov., Hoplitis (Anthocopa) nicolaei spec. nov., Hoplitis (Anthocopa) serainae spec. nov. and Protosmia (Nanosmia) montana spec. nov. from Greece; Chelostoma (Chelostoma) comosum spec. nov. from Cyprus; and Hoplitis (Anthocopa) caucasicola spec. nov. from the Caucasus.

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.

The subgenus Wainiella Griswold contains 2 Afrotropical species (Michener, 2007). According to Griswold and Michener (1998), Wainiella marginally reaches the Palaearctic region in Yemen. Indeed, a Wainiella species was recently found in a sample of bees from Yemen (C. Praz, personal communication). As it is improbable that this species is conspecific with Wainia (Wainiella) albobarbata from South Africa and DR Congo or with Wainia (Wainiella) sakaniensis from DR Congo, the species from Yemen is probably new to science.

Heriades (Michenerella) fujiyamai Yasumatsu & Hirashima, 1952 from Japan is newly added to the Catalogue.

Heriades (Michenerella) sakishimanus Yasumatsu & Hirashima, 1965 from Japan is newly added to the Catalogue.