Category: Taxonomy

Pseudosmia taurica was described by Radoszkowski (1874) based on female and male specimens collected near Salguir on the Crimean peninsula. Radoszkowski placed this species in a newly established genus Pseudosmia, to which he added – according to the current classification – eight further species belonging to Hoplitis (Anthocopa), Osmia (Erythrogastra), Osmia (Helicosmia), Osmia (Hoplosmia) and Osmia (Metallinella). Radoszkowski’s description is far from being sufficient to narrow down the identity of P. taurica. Due to the laterally toothed male tergum 6, P. taurica is probably a member of the genus Hoplitis, which is supported by the author’s remark that the new species is morphologically close to H (Anthocopa) bisulca (Gerstaecker). The types of P. taurica were neither found in Krakow, where a large part of the bee collection of Radoszkowski is housed, nor in Moscow or St. Petersburg (L. Przyby┼éowicz, A. Fateryga and M. Proshchalykin, personal communication), which suggests that they are lost. Due to the insufficient species description and the unavailability of the types, P. taurica Radoszkowski, 1874 is therefore newly regarded as a nomen dubium.

Tkalku (1979) described Hoplitis corcyraea as subspecies of H. yermasoyiae (Mavromoustakis 1938) mainly differing from the latter by the yellowish-red rather than whitish metasomal scopa. The investigation of a series of H. corcyraea from mainland Greece revealed additional morphological differences, e.g. in the length of the mouthparts, in the formation of the tergal hair bands and in the punctation of the tergal discs. Thus, H. corcyraea is elevated here to species rank.

Tkalcu (1992) described Hoplitis (Anthocopa) cretaea from Crete. He listed several characters to differentiate this Cretean endemic from the closely related Hoplitis (Anthocopa) bisulca (Gerstaecker, 1869), which has a wide distribution ranging from southwestern Europe to western Asia. However, based on a large material of H. bisulca from all over Europe and western Asia the characters given by Tkalcu to separate the males of the two species proved to be incorrect. The only difference between the females of the two species is a slight difference in the punctation of the propodeum, which does not seem to justify species status of H. cretaea. Thus, H. cretaea is synonymized here with H. bisulca.

In the following three European species of the subgenus Osmia (Helicosmia), populations were given subspecific rank solely due to the white rather than yellowish pilosity of head, mesosoma and terga in the female sex:

– Osmia signata rhodia Tkalc┼», 2005 on Rhodes;

– Osmia labialis tornensis Tkalc┼», 1995 in eastern Europe;

– Osmia latreillei iberoafricana Peters, 1975 on the Iberian peninsula, Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Malta and Cyprus.

As the different colour of the body pilosity is not known to be accompanied by other morphological differences compared to the nominate subspecies and as transitional populations occur containing both white and yellow haired individuals (e.g. in O. latreillei on Corsica, Sardinia and the Canary Islands; Tkalc┼», 1975a; Zanden, 1983; Warncke, 1988a), the subspecific rank of these three taxa does not seem to be justified. Thus, the three subspecies are synonymized with Osmia signata Erichson, 1835, Osmia labialis Pérez, 1879 and Osmia latreillei (Spinola, 1806), respectively.

Le Goff (2005) described a new subspecies of Osmia dimidiata Morawitz, 1870 based on specimens from Crete, i.d. O. d. assomatosana. According to the author, this subspecies is mainly characterized by the whitish rather than yellowish colour of the light hairs of the two-coloured metasomal scopa. The investigation of a large material of O. dimidiata from Mediterranean Europe and western Asia revealed that females with a white-black rather than yellow-black scopa are not restricted to Crete but also occur e.g. in Italy, Turkey or Israel. Thus, the subspecific rank of the Cretean population of O. dimidiata does not seem to be justified and consequently, O. d. assomatosana is synonymized here with O. dimidiata. 

Tkalc┼» (1970) treated the two closely related and morphologically very similar taxa Osmia tunensis (Fabricius, 1787) and Osmia aurulenta (Panzer, 1799) as different species. The original description of the two taxa was based on specimens from the Maghreb for O. tunensis and from central Europe for O. aurulenta. In contrast, Warncke (1988a) considered O. aurulenta to be a subspecies of O. tunensis, which was again rejected by Schwarz et al. (1996), who supported the view of Tkalc┼» (1970).

North African specimens of O. tunensis differ from central and east European specimens of O. aurulenta by i) a slightly shorter vertex, ii) a slightly denser punctation of the scutum, iii) a longer pilosity on both discs and marginal zones of the terga, iv) a brightly foxy red rather than yellowish-red pilosity of scutum, scutellum, mesepisternum and terga, which is of about the same colour as the metasomal scopa in the female, and v) a yellowish(-red) rather than whitish pilosity of face, underside of mesosoma and tergum 1 in the male. Specimens from Sicily and Malta have characters iii)-v) in common with north African specimens, whereas they have a similarly long vertex and a similarly dense punctation of the scutum as central European specimens. Specimens from southwestern and southeastern Europe correspond to central and east European specimens in all five characters.

Characters i) and ii) appear to be taxonomically superior compared to characters iii) – v) as the length and colour of the body pilosity is expected to more strongly vary depending on altitude, geographic latitude or climatic conditions. In fact, the body pilosity of many aculeate hymenopteran species is well known to become more reddish towards the south. Thus, pending future genetic studies, O. tunensis and O. aurulenta are tentatively treated here as different species with the former restricted to northern Africa and the latter occurring in Europe and western Asia. Specimens from Sicily and Malta are considered to belong to O. aurulenta as the differences with mainland European specimens only concern the length and colour of the body pilosity.

The systematic position of Osmia mirhiji Mavromoustakis, 1957 was unclear. Due to the weak metallic blue to green sheen of head and terga of the female, Mavromoustakis (1957) assigned the species to the subgenus Chalcosmia = Helicosmia. However, the structure of the clypeus deviates from that of Osmia (Helicosmia) but is instead similar to that of Osmia (Tergosmia) or Hoplitis (Anthocopa). The recent examination of several males revealed that Osmia mirhiji actually belongs to the genus Osmia (punctiform parapsidal lines, lack of lateral tooth at tergum 6, lack of basal flaps at base of sternum 6) and that it shows the typical male characters of Osmia (Tergosmia), such as the similar form and size of sterna 2-3 lacking fringed emarginations, the strong and haired median emargination of sternum 5 and the shape of tergum 7. Thus, Osmia mirhiji is newly placed into the subgenus Osmia (Tergosmia). It is the only species of this subgenus with a metallic body sheen.

Osmia cinctella was described by Dours (1873) based on specimens both from Greek islands (probably Crete) and Algeria. Based on the original description, Osmia cinctella belongs to the Osmia niveocincta species group. Among the representatives of this group, Osmia niveocincta Pérez, 1879 is the only species known to occur both on Crete and in Algeria. However, several characters given in the original description of Osmia cinctella clearly exclude Osmia niveocincta, suggesting that Dours’ syntypes comprised two different species. Most probably, Dours’ specimens from the Greek Islands correspond to Osmia dives Mocsaryi, 1877 and those from Algeria to Osmia frieseana Ducke, 1899. Unfortunately, the types of Osmia cinctella are lost (Tkalcu, 1977b; Zanden, 1990), rendering both the clarification of the species identity and the designation of a lectotype impossible. Thus, O. cinctella is regarded here as a nomen dubium.

Warncke (1988a) considered the Cretean specimens of „Osmia cinctella“ (as O. sogdiana cinctella) to be taxonomically different from those of Osmia dives (as O. sogdiana dives). In fact, the specimens from Crete are slightly smaller and have a slightly finer and denser punctation of female terga 1-2 compared to Osmia dives from mainland Europe and Turkey. As these morphological differences are only very minor, however, the Cretean specimens are considered here to be conspecific with Osmia dives.