Category: Distribution

In a sample of bees collected by David Baldock, two new osmiine bee species for Portugal were found: Hoplitis (Anthocopa) papaveris and Osmia (Metallinella) brevicornis. In addition, Osmia (Hemiosmia) argyropyga and Osmia (Helicosmia) niveocincta were added to the Catalogue as occurring in Portugal (Kuhlmann, 1996).

According to Ungricht et al. (2008), Hoplitis (Alcidamea) garzetta (Warncke, 1991) has been recorded in Greece. This record is erroneous as all specimens from Greece formerly identified as H. garzetta were recently found to belong to the closely related Hoplitis (Alcidamea) bispinosa Zanden, 1992. So far, H. garzetta is known to occur only in Turkey.

In a sample of bees recently received from the American Museum of Natural History, several new species records were established: Hoplitis (Anthocopa) batyamae (Zanden, 1986): new record for Egypt (collected by J.G. Rozen and S.M. Kamel); Hoplitis (Anthocopa) jakovlevi (Radoszkowski, 1874): new record for Armenia (collected by S. Droege); Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) nitidula (Morawitz, 1877): new record for Pakistan (unknown collector); Hoplitis (Pentadentosmia) rufopicta (Morawitz, 1875): new record for Pakistan (collected by J.G. Rozen).

In a sample of osmiine bees collected by David Baldock, two species were found that have never been recorded for Portugal so far: Hoplitis (Anthocopa) bisulca (Gerstaecker, 1869) and Hoplitis (Hoplitis) ochraceicornis (Ferton, 1902).

The rare Osmia (Melanosmia) steinmanni (Müller, 2002), which was known so far only from a few localities in the Swiss Alps, has recently been discovered in South Tirol, Italy (Kopf, 2008).