Taxonomy
Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Anthidiini
Genus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Subgenus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Species: Pseudoanthidium pictipes (Morawitz, 1894)
Background
Pseudoanthidium pictipes are relatively small bees, approximately 7 mm in body length. Only the male of the species is known. They have predominantly black
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
, with a small yellow maculations behind the eyes and laterally on the
tergaterga:
the segments on the top side of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, or T7
. Their legs can range from yellow to black. They have a dense, yellow-white
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
covering their body (
Kasparek 2021Kasparek 2021:
Kasparek, M. 2021. The bee genus Pseudoanthidium: revision of the subgenus Exanthidium with the description of a new species (Apoidea: Megachilidae). Fragmenta entomologica, 53(2), 333-346.).
Distribution
Pseudoanthidium pictipes is known from the Zarafshan Valley, Tajikistan (
Warncke 1980Warncke 1980:
Warncke, K. 1980. Die Bienengattung Anthidium Fabricius, 1804 in der Westpalaarktis und im turkestanischen Becken. Entomofauna 1: 119ndash;210.).
Host associations
Floral associations are unknown.
Nesting behavior
Little is known about the nesting biology of
Pseudoanthidium pictipes but most species of
Pseudoanthidium nest in pre-existing cavities like in wood, stems, galls or crevices (
Litman et al. 2021Litman et al. 2021:
Litman, J. R., Fateryga, A. V., Griswold, T. L., Aubert, M., Proshchalykin, M. Y., Le Divelec, R., Burrows, S. & Praz, C. J. 2022. Paraphyly and low levels of genetic divergence in morphologically distinct taxa: revision of the Pseudoanthidium scapulare complex of carder bees (Apoidea: Megachilidae: Anthidiini). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 195(4): 1287-1337.).
Known invasives
There are no known invasives.
