Archive for the ‘Taxonomy’ Category

New Osmia (Hemiosmia) species

Friday, October 30th, 2020

An article in Zootaxa has recently been published dealing with the biology and taxonomy of Osmia bees of the subgenera Hemiosmia, Tergosmia and Erythrosmia (Zootaxa, 4778, 201-236, 2020). One new species is described: Osmia (Hemiosmia) spinicoxa spec. nov. from southwestern Morocco.

New synonymy

Tuesday, June 19th, 2018

Based on topotypical specimens from the Chelmos mountains (Greece) and the original description, Hoplitis (Alcidamea) abnormis Zanden 1992 is a junior synonym of Hoplitis (Alcidamea) subbutea (Warncke, 1991).

Newly described Palaearctic osmiine bee species

Wednesday, June 13th, 2018

An article in Zootaxa has recently been published dealing with the biology and taxonomy of Osmia (Hoplosmia) (Zootaxa, 4415, 297-329, 2017). One new species is described: Osmia (Hoplosmia) centaurea spec. nov. from Jordan, Israel and Palestine.

New Protosmia species described

Saturday, March 3rd, 2018

In a recent paper in Entomofauna (39, 187-191, 2018), G. Le Goff and A.R. Gonçalves described a new Protosmia species from Portugal.

Hoplitis brunnescens belongs to the subgenus Stenosmia

Saturday, January 20th, 2018

The assignment of Hoplitis brunnescens (Benoist, 1950) to the subgenus Hoplitis by Warncke (1992a) is erroneous. The recent investigation of the female holotype revealed that H. brunnescens belongs to the subgenus Stenosmia and that the type specimen is probably conspecific with H. tagmouta (Warncke, 1991b). However, the type slightly differs from typical females of H. tagmouta by the longer vertex and the reddish colour of legs and terga 1-3 (partly also of terga 4 and 5), rendering a synonymization premature. Only further material including males will show whether H. brunnescens and H. tagmouta are conspecific or represent two distinct species. Hoplitis brunnescens sensu Warncke (1992a) has to be renamed.

Two new Haetosmia species

Friday, December 1st, 2017

In a recent paper in Zootaxa (4358, 351-364, 2017), two new Haetosmia species are described, i.e. H. ethiopiensis spec. nov. from eastern Africa and H. pakistaniensis spec. nov. from Pakistan. Formerly considered to be restricted to the southern Palaearctic region, the genus Haetosmia was found to also occur in the Afrotropics.

Hoplitis mucida stecki elevated to species rank

Wednesday, November 1st, 2017

Hoplitis mucida was considered to consist of two subspecies with H. mucida mucida (Dours 1873) ranging from northwestern Africa to Israel and Jordan and H. mucida stecki (Frey-Gessner 1908) occurring in southwestern Europe and Sicily. As described in a recent publication (Journal of Hymenoptera Research, 60, 99-109, 2017), the nesting biology of the two subspecies strikingly differs. In North Africa, females construct fully exposed, cake-like nests of mud on the flat surface of rocks and stones containing 8–12 vertically oriented brood cells, rendering these nests unique among osmiine bees regarding both nesting site and nest architecture. In contrast, in Europe females build their few-celled mud nests inside small rock cavities. This discrepancy in the nesting biology is paralleled by considerable morphological differences between the two subspecies suggestive of a long geographical isolation. Due to these biological and morphological differences, the European subspecies H. mucida stecki was elevated to species rank by the authors of the publication mentioned above.

Newly described Palaearctic osmiine bee species

Wednesday, February 8th, 2017

An article in Zootaxa has recently been published dealing with the biology and taxonomy of Protosmia (Chelostomopsis) (Zootaxa, 4227, 287-294, 2017). One new species is described: Protosmia (Chelostomopsis) angustimandibulae spec. nov. from the Levant.

2 Palaearctic osmiine bee species newly described

Friday, June 24th, 2016

An article in Zootaxa has recently been published dealing with the biology and taxonomy of Hoplitis (Formicapis) and Hoplitis (Tkalcua) (Zootaxa, 4127, 105-120, 2016). Two new species are described: Hoplitis (Formicapis) coreensis spec. nov. from South Korea and Hoplitis (Tkalcua) emiratensis spec. nov. from the United Arab Emirates.

Hoplitis mitis granadae

Sunday, January 24th, 2016

Based on a single female, Tkalcu (1984a) described a new subspecies of Hoplitis mitis from the Sierra Nevada (Spain), i.e. H. m. granadae. Due to several remarkable differences, Tkalcu hypothesized that the new subspecies might possibly even represent a new species. Recently, the hitherto unknown male of H. m. granadae was found in osmiine bee material collected at 3200m a.s.l. at the southern slope of Pico Mulhacen in the Sierra Nevada by G. Losapio. Comparison of the males of H. m. granadae with those of the nominate subspecies generally revealed close morphological resemblance. However, as the morphological differences between the females of H. m. granadae and the nominate subspecies as stated by Tkalcu could be confirmed, the subspecific rank of the disjunct southern Spanish population of H. mitis appears to be well justified.