{"id":46,"date":"2009-01-21T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2009-01-21T21:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpethzprd.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/?page_id=46"},"modified":"2025-12-28T16:20:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T15:20:46","slug":"osmia","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/palaearctic-species\/osmia\/","title":{"rendered":"Genus Osmia"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h5>\n
Nest of Osmia (Helicosmia) leaiana<\/em> (Kirby, 1802) in a hollow stem; the brood cell provisions consist of pollen of Carduoideae (Asteraceae) and the cell partitions are made of chewed leaves. Foto A. Krebs.<\/span><\/h5>\n

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

The genus Osmia<\/em> Panzer is distributed in the Palaearctic and the Nearctic region, a few species also occur in the Oriental and Neotropical region (Michener, 2007; Ungricht et al., 2008).<\/p>\n

Osmia<\/em> is the second most diverse osmiine genus in terms of number of species: 357 species have been described so far, 215 of which occur in the Palaearctic.<\/p>\n

Phylogeny and classification<\/h3>\n

The genus Osmia<\/em>, whose monophyly is well supported, is sister to the clade Atoposmia<\/em>+Ashmeadiella<\/em> (Praz et al., 2008b). It was subdivided into 19 subgenera by Michener (2007). In contrast to Micheners\u2019 classification, i) Hoplosmia <\/em>is treated here as a subgenus of Osmia <\/em>rather than as a genus of its own (Praz et al., 2008b), ii) the subgenus Nasutosmia<\/em>, which was formerly treated as subgenus of Hoplitis<\/em> (Michener, 2007), recently turned out to belong to the genus Osmia <\/em>(Praz et al., 2008b), iii) the subgenus Ozbekosmia<\/em> is newly synonymized with the subgenus Tergosmia<\/em> (A. M\u00fcller, unpublished), and iv) the subgenera Monosmia<\/em> and Orientosmia<\/em> are synonymized with the subgenus Osmia<\/em> (Haider et al., 2013).<\/p>\n

The Palaearctic Osmia<\/em> species belong to the following 12 subgenera:<\/p>\n

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

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

Helicosmia<\/em><\/strong> with 69 described species<\/p>\n

Hemiosmia<\/em><\/strong> with 8 described species<\/p>\n

Hoplosmia<\/strong> <\/em>with 21 described species<\/p>\n

Melanosmia<\/em><\/strong> with 20 described species<\/p>\n

Metallinella<\/em><\/strong> with 1 described species<\/p>\n

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

Neosmia<\/em> <\/strong>with 10 described species<\/p>\n

Osmia <\/em>s. str.<\/strong> with 25 described species<\/p>\n

Pyrosmia<\/em><\/strong> with 33 described species<\/p>\n

Tergosmia<\/em><\/strong> with 8 described species<\/p>\n

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

The following subgenera most probably form monophyletic clades (Praz et al., 2008b):<\/p>\n

Allosmia<\/em>+Neosmia<\/em><\/p>\n

Pyrosmia<\/em>+Diceratosmia <\/em>(Nearctic)<\/p>\n

Helicosmia<\/em>+Melanosmia <\/em>(including the Nearctic Acanthosmioides<\/em> and Mystacosmia<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Cephalosmia<\/em>+Trichinosmia<\/em> (both Nearctic)<\/p>\n

Nesting biology<\/h3>\n

Information on the nesting biology is available for 148 Osmia <\/em>species belonging to 19 subgenera from the Palaearctic, Nearctic and Neotropical 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 Osmia<\/em> is high and encompasses much of the diversity observed in the osmiine bees. In contrast to the genus Hoplitis<\/em>, there are no cleptoparasitic species and nesting in empty snail shells is more common. Among Osmia<\/em>, there are species that<\/p>\n

nest in e<\/strong>xcavated burrows<\/strong> in the soil (e.g. some Tergosmia<\/em>, most Hemiosmia<\/em>, some Melanosmia<\/em>) or occasionally in pithy stems or dead wood (e.g. few Melanosmia<\/em>);<\/p>\n

nest in preexisting cavities<\/strong> as insect burrows in dead wood and pithy stems (e.g. Metallinella<\/em>, many Helicosmia, Hoplosmia, Melanosmia, Osmia<\/em> s. str. and Pyrosmia<\/em>), in galls or in the soil; abandoned cells in exposed nests of other aculeates; in empty snail shells (e.g. Allosmia, Erythrosmia, Neosmia<\/em>, many<\/span> Hoplosmia<\/em>, some<\/span> Helicosmia <\/em>and <\/span>Pyrosmia<\/em>); in fissures, cracks or holes in rocks (e.g. some Osmia<\/em> s. str., Pyrosmia<\/em> and Tergosmia<\/em>); between vegetative parts (e.g. <\/span>O. (Melanosmia) xanthomelana, O. (Tergosmia) tergestensis<\/em>);<\/p>\n

build exposed nests<\/strong> (e.g. some Pyrosmia<\/em>).<\/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 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 O<\/em>smia<\/em> species known to collect resin<\/strong> for cell construction is the Nearctic Osmia (Mystacosmia) nemoris <\/em>(Rust and Clement, 1972).<\/em><\/p>\n

Many Osmia<\/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 (e.g. many Osmia<\/em> and Helicosmia<\/em>). Other species invariably build their entire cells with foreign material (e.g. Tergosmia<\/em> with whole petals and mud; some Pyrosmia<\/em> with leaf pulp and sand; Hemiosmia, <\/em>few Helicosmia<\/em> and Osmia<\/em> s. str. with leaf pulp; some Melanosmia<\/em> with either mud or leaf pulp).<\/p>\n

Flower preferences<\/h3>\n

To our current knowledge, all categories of bee host ranges as proposed by M\u00fcller and Kuhlmann (2008) can be found in the Palaearctic Osmia<\/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 Cerinthe<\/em> (Boraginaceae), Onosma <\/em>(Boraginaceae);<\/p>\n

broad oligoleges<\/strong>, which restrict pollen collection to one plant family or tribe, e.g. to Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Ericaceae, Fabaceae, Hedysareae (Fabaceae);<\/p>\n

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

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

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

Several Osmia<\/em> species are equipped with specialized bristles on the proboscis (e.g. O. (Helicosmia) cinerea<\/em>, O. (Melanosmia) pilicornis<\/em>) to remove pollen from anthers hidden in the narrow flower tubes of Boraginaceae (e.g. Pulmonaria<\/em>). Similarly, several Osmia<\/em> species of the subgenera Erythrosmia<\/em> and Helicosmia<\/em> possess a specialized facial pilosity composed of apically twisted bristles which serve to remove pollen from the nototribic anthers of Lamiaceae and Antirrhineae (Scrophulariaceae).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nest of Osmia (Helicosmia) leaiana (Kirby, 1802) in a hollow stem; the brood cell provisions consist of pollen of Carduoideae (Asteraceae) and the cell partitions are made of chewed leaves. Foto A. Krebs. Biogeography and diversity The genus Osmia Panzer is distributed in the Palaearctic and the Nearctic region, a few species also occur in […]<\/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-46","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/46","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=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7343,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethz.ch\/osmiini\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/46\/revisions\/7343"}],"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=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}