Heriades

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Heriades Spinola, 1808
Subgenera: Amboheriades, Heriades, Michenerella, Neotrypetes, Pachyheriades, Rhopaloheriades, Toxeriades, Tyttheriades
Common name: none

Overview

Heriades were likely named after the woolly patches found on the abdomen of several species, as Heriades means “wool” (Wilson and Carril 2016Wilson and Carril 2016:
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North Americarsquo;s Bees. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 288 pp.). Most species range in body length from 4–7 mm in length; however, South African species can reach a length of 10.5 mm (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). Most species within North America have black, slender, elongated bodies with white bandsbands:
usually referring to bands of hair or bands of color that traverse across an abdominal segment
of hair on their abdomen (Wilson and Carril 2016Wilson and Carril 2016:
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North Americarsquo;s Bees. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 288 pp.).

Diversity

Heriades contains approximately 140 species in eight subgenera worldwide (Ascher and Pickering 2016aAscher and Pickering 2016a:
Ascher, J.S. and J. Pickering. 2016. Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). Discover Life. https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Apoidea). There are 13 described and 10 undescribed species in North and Central America, but only a dozen of them are commonly collected. Only three species occur east of the Rocky Mountains.

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.)

• Arolia present.
• Metanotum metanotum:
  the posterior dorsal segment of the thorax, behind the scutellum
  with anterioranterior:
  toward the head or on the head side of a segment being described
  margin carinatecarinate:
  having keels or carinae
  and projected upwards.
• Mouthparts short, not or scarcely exceeding proboscidial fossafossa:
  the large, deep groove on the underside of the head into which the proboscis folds
  in repose.
• Pronotal lobes carinatecarinate:
  having keels or carinae
  .
• Propodeum propodeum:
  the last segment of the thorax
  with horizontal basalbasal:
  originating at the foundation of a structure
  zone consisting of a series of large pits, separated from declivous posterior surface by a carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  .
• T1 anterioranterior:
  toward the head or on the head side of a segment being described
  surface concave with a carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  where the dorsaldorsal:
  in general, the upper surface
  and anterioranterior:
  toward the head or on the head side of a segment being described
  surfaces meet.
• Female S1S1:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  lacks apicalapical:
  near or at the apex or end of any structure
  spine.
• Male T7T7:
  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
  is hidden by the untoothed T6T6:
  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
  .
• Male abdomen is usually curled, only exposing two sternasterna:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  .

May be confused with

Heriades may be confused with bees within the genera Afroheriades and Stenoheriades, but Heriades can be distinguished by their short proboscisproboscis:
an elongated sucking mouthpart that is typically tubular and flexible
, which does not extend beyond the fossafossa:
the large, deep groove on the underside of the head into which the proboscis folds
(Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Known invasives

Heriades truncorum has a native range throughout Europe and eastern Asia, but was reportedly collected in Maryland in 2010 (Russo 2016Russo 2016:
Russo, L. 2016. Positive and negative impacts of non-native bee species around the world. Insects 7: 69.).

Host associations

Heriades are generalists and have been observed visiting a variety of flowering plants (Wilson and Carril 2016Wilson and Carril 2016:
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North Americarsquo;s Bees. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 288 pp.).

Nesting behavior

Heriades are solitary. Most nest in abandoned holes in wood and plant stems created by other insects, such as beetles (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). Heriades have also been found nesting in pine cones (Wilson and Carril 2016Wilson and Carril 2016:
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North Americarsquo;s Bees. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 288 pp.). Like Ashmeadiella and Hoplitis, Heriades uses resin to build partitions between cells (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Distribution

Heriades are found on every continent except Australia and South America (Discover Life 2018Discover Life 2018:
Discover Life. 2018. Anthidium (Gulanthidium) . Discover Life. https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20p?see=Gulanthidiumamp;name=Anthidiumamp;flags=subgenus:amp;mobile=1). In the Americas, they range from southern Canada to the northern edge of Columbia (Wilson and Carril 2016Wilson and Carril 2016:
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North Americarsquo;s Bees. Princeton University Press, Princeton and Oxford, 288 pp.; Discover Life 2018Discover Life 2018:
Discover Life. 2018. Anthidium (Gulanthidium) . Discover Life. https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20p?see=Gulanthidiumamp;name=Anthidiumamp;flags=subgenus:amp;mobile=1).

​Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.

References

Ascher, J.S. and J. Pickering. 2016. Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). Discover Life. http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Apoidea
 
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World. 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.
 
Russo, L. 2016. Positive and negative impacts of non-native bee species around the world. Insects 7:69.
 
Wilson, J.S. and O.M. Carril. 2016. The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America’s Bees. Princeton University Press.