Taxonomy
Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Anthidiini
Genus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Subgenus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Species: Pseudoanthidium arenosum (Warncke 1981Warncke 1981:
Warncke, K. 1981. Beitrag zur Bienenfauna des Iran. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 32: 171–196.)
Background
Pseudoanthidium arenosum are small, 4 – 6 mm bees. They have a predominantly black
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
with symmetrical yellow spots on their face,
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
, and
scutellumscutellum:
shield shaped plate behind scutum
. Their legs and mandibles are predominantly yellow (
Warncke 1981Warncke 1981:
Warncke, K. 1981. Beitrag zur Bienenfauna des Iran. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 32: 171–196.).
Distribution
Pseudoanthidium arenosum is known from Pakistan and Iran (Warncke 1981).
​Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.
Host associations
Floral associations are unknown.
Diagnostic characteristics
(modified from Warncke 1981Warncke 1981:
Warncke, K. 1981. Beitrag zur Bienenfauna des Iran. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 32: 171–196.)
-
Omalus present.
-
Scutum scutum:
the large segment on top of the thorax located between the wings and behind the head
and 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
with fine, somewhat sparse, punctures.
-
Female clypeusclypeus:
a section of the face below the antennae, demarcated by the epistomal sutures
with apicalapical:
near or at the apex or end of any structure
edge crenulatecrenulate:
having a finely scalloped or notched outline or edge
or denticulate
May be confused with
Pseudoanthidium arenosum is similar to
P. beaumonti and
P. ochrognathum in that they all have an omalus.
P. arenosum can be distinguished by the more extensive yellow markings and the finer, sparser,
punctationpunctation:
overall pattern of the punctures on a surface of a bee, includes size of punctures and the distance between them
on the
scutumscutum:
the large segment on top of the thorax located between the wings and behind the head
and
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
(
Warncke 1981Warncke 1981:
Warncke, K. 1981. Beitrag zur Bienenfauna des Iran. Bollettino del Museo Civico di Storia Naturale di Venezia 32: 171–196.).
Nesting behavior
Little is known about the nesting biology of
Pseudoanthidium arenosum, 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.
