{"id":42,"date":"2009-01-21T22:17:12","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T21:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpethzprd.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2026-03-24T20:08:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T19:08:59","slug":"hoplitis","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/palaearctic-species\/hoplitis\/","title":{"rendered":"Genus Hoplitis"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n
Female of Ho<\/em>plitis (Hoplitis) lepeletieri <\/em>(P\u00e9rez, 1879) on her exposed nest built on the surface of a rock. Foto A. Krebs.<\/span><\/h5>\n

Biogeography and diversity<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The genus Hoplitis<\/em> Klug is distributed in the Palaearctic, the Nearctic and the Afrotropical region, a few species also occur in the Oriental region (Michener, 2007).<\/p>\n

Hoplitis<\/em> is the most diverse osmiine genus in terms of number of species: 406 species have been described so far, 330 of which occur in the Palaearctic.<\/p>\n

Phylogeny and classification<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The genus Hoplitis<\/em>, whose monophyly is well supported, is sister to the clade Wainia<\/em>+Atoposmia<\/em>+Ashmeadiella<\/em>+Osmia<\/em> (Praz et al., 2008b). It was subdivided into 27 subgenera by Michener (2007). In contrast to Micheners’ classification, i) Stenosmia <\/em>is treated here as a subgenus of Hoplitis <\/em>rather than as a genus of its own, <\/em>ii) Micreriades<\/em> is recognized as a subgenus of Hoplitis<\/em> rather than as a synonym of Alcidamea<\/em>, and iii) the subgenus Nasutosmia<\/em> is transferred from Hoplitis<\/em> to Osmia <\/em>(Praz et al., 2008b). In addition, Exanthocopa<\/em>, a former subgenus of Hoplitis,<\/em> is synonymized here with the subgenus Anthocopa<\/em> (A. M\u00fcller, unpublished), the subgenera Annosmia, Bytinskia, Coloplitis<\/em> and Hoplitis<\/em> are merged into one large subgenus Hoplitis <\/em>and the subgenera Alcidamea, Megalosmia, Monumetha<\/em> and Prionohoplitis<\/em> into one large subgenus Alcidamea<\/em> (Sedivy et al., 2013c).<\/p>\n

The Palaearctic Hoplitis<\/em> species belong to the following 14 subgenera:<\/p>\n

Alcidamea<\/strong> <\/em>with 66 described species<\/p>\n

Anthocopa <\/strong><\/em>with 76 described species<\/p>\n

Chlidoplitis <\/strong><\/em>with 9 described species<\/p>\n

Eurypariella<\/strong><\/em> with 2 described species<\/p>\n

Formicapis<\/strong><\/em> with 4 described species<\/p>\n

Hoplitis<\/strong><\/em> s. str. <\/strong>with 102 described species<\/p>\n

Jaxartinula <\/strong><\/em>with 2 described species<\/p>\n

Kumobia <\/strong><\/em>with 4 described species<\/p>\n

Megahoplitis<\/strong><\/em> with 2 described species<\/p>\n

Micreriades<\/strong><\/em> with 11 described species<\/p>\n

Pentadentosmia<\/strong><\/em> with 22 described species<\/p>\n

Platosmia <\/strong><\/em>with 11 described species<\/p>\n

Stenosmia<\/strong><\/em> with 15 described species<\/p>\n

Tkalcua <\/strong><\/em>with 3 described species<\/p>\n

Subgenus uncertain<\/strong> with 2 described species<\/p>\n

Nesting biology<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Information on the nesting biology is available for 110 Hoplitis<\/em> species belonging to 20 subgenera from the Palaearctic, Nearctic, Afrotropical and Oriental region (A. M\u00fcller, C. Praz, J. Neff, G. Le Goff and C. Sedivy, unpublished).<\/p>\n

The diversity of nesting sites<\/strong> in the genus Hoplitis<\/em> is very high and encompasses the whole diversity observed in the osmiine bees. There are species that<\/p>\n

nest in e<\/strong>xcavated burrows<\/strong> in the soil (e.g. many Hoplitis <\/em>s. str., <\/em>many Anthocopa<\/em>, Pentadentosmia<\/em>) or in pithy stems (e.g. many Alcidamea<\/em>);<\/p>\n

nest in preexisting cavities<\/strong> as insect burrows in dead wood (e.g. Formicapis<\/em>), in pithy stems (e.g. many Alcidamea<\/em>), in galls or in the soil; abandoned cells in exposed nests of other aculeates; in empty snail shells (e.g. H. (Hoplitis) fertoni<\/em>); in fissures, cracks or holes in rocks (e.g. many Hoplitis<\/em> s. str.); between vegetative parts (e.g. H. (Alcidamea) mitis<\/em>);<\/p>\n

build exposed nests<\/strong> (e.g. some Hoplitis<\/em> s. str.);<\/p>\n

have a cleptoparasitic<\/strong> behaviour (few Hoplitis<\/em> s. str.).<\/p>\n

Similarly diverse is the nesting ma<\/strong>terial<\/strong> used for the construction of cell partitions and nest plug or for building entire cells. Depending on the subgenus or species, mud and pebbles<\/strong>, leaf pulp<\/strong>, whole leaves<\/strong>, whole petals<\/strong> or pith<\/strong> are used alone or in diverse combinations. In contrast to the species of the Heriades<\/em> group, for which the use of resin is widespread, the only Hoplitis<\/em> species known to collect resin<\/strong> for cell construction is the Nearctic Hoplitis (Alcidamea) biscutellae<\/em> (Rust, 1980).<\/p>\n

Many Hoplitis<\/em> species nesting in narrow cavities use the nesting material only to delimit the linearly arranged cells by walls and to plug the nest. Some of these species, especially when nesting in larger cavities, have the flexibility to arrange cells more irregularly by partially or wholly constructing also the walls of the cells. Other species invariably build their entire cells with foreign material (e.g. many Anthocopa<\/em> species with whole petals, many Hoplitis<\/em> s. str. species with mud and pebbles, some Alcidamea<\/em> species with whole leaves or leaf fragments, Hoplitis (Alcidamea) fulva<\/em> with leaf pulp).<\/p>\n

Flower preferences<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The knowledge about the pollen preferences of the Palaearctic Hoplitis<\/em> species is still in a poor state. To our current knowledge, all categories of bee host ranges as proposed by M\u00fcller and Kuhlmann (2008) can be found in the Palaearctic Hoplitis<\/em> fauna, except true monolecty and eclectic oligolecty:<\/p>\n

narrow oligoleges<\/strong>, which restrict pollen collection to one single plant genus only, e.g. to Allium<\/em> (Alliaceae), Echium<\/em> (Boraginaceae), Linum<\/em> (Linaceae), Muscari<\/em> (Hyacinthaceae), Reseda<\/em> (Resedaceae) and possibly to Haplophyllum<\/em> (Rutaceae), Heliotropium<\/em> (Boraginaceae), Onosma<\/em> (Boraginaceae), Tamarix<\/em> (Tamaricaceae) and Trichodesma<\/em> (Boraginaceae);<\/p>\n

broad oligoleges<\/strong>, which restrict pollen collection to one plant family or tribe, e.g. to Asteraceae, Campanulaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Convolvulaceae, Dipsacaceae, Fabaceae, Malvaceae, Scrophulariaceae and Zygophyllaceae;<\/p>\n

probable mesoleges<\/strong>, which collect pollen on only two to three plant families, e.g. on Boraginaceae and Fabaceae or on Asteraceae and Fabaceae;<\/p>\n

polyleges with a strong preference<\/strong>, e.g. for Asteraceae, Resedaceae, Fabaceae;<\/p>\n

polyleges<\/strong>, which collect pollen on at least four plant families.<\/p>\n

Several Hoplitis<\/em> species are equipped with specialized bristles on the forelegs (e.g. H. (Hoplitis) flabellifera<\/em>) or on the proboscis (e.g. H. (Hoplitis) persica<\/em>, H. (Hoplitis) pici<\/em>) to remove pollen from anthers hidden in the narrow flower tubes of Anchusa<\/em> (Boraginaceae), Heliotropium<\/em> (Boraginaceae) and Muscari<\/em> (Hyacinthaceae), respectively. Similarly, several Hoplitis<\/em> species of the subgenus Micreriades<\/em> possess a specialized pilosity on clypeus and frons composed of apically twisted bristles, which most probably serve to remove pollen from the nototribic anthers of Lamiaceae.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Female of Hoplitis (Hoplitis) lepeletieri (P\u00e9rez, 1879) on her exposed nest built on the surface of a rock. Foto A. Krebs. Biogeography and diversity The genus Hoplitis Klug is distributed in the Palaearctic, the Nearctic and the Afrotropical region, a few species also occur in the Oriental region (Michener, 2007). Hoplitis is the most diverse […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1092,"featured_media":0,"parent":30,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1092"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7414,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions\/7414"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}