Stenoheriades

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Stenoheriades Tkalců, 1984
Subgenera: none
Common name: none

Overview

Stenoheriades are coarsely punctatepunctate:
studded with tiny holes
, black bees with white hair bandsbands:
usually referring to bands of hair or bands of color that traverse across an abdominal segment
on their 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 a slender, elongate build. They range in body length from 5–7 mm (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Diversity

Stenoheriades contains 11 described species and 6 undescribed species worldwide; none are known to occur in the U.S. or Canada (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.; Müller and Trunz 2014; Griswold 2018Griswold 2018:
Griswold, T.L. 2018. First record of Stenoheriades Cockerell in tropical Asia: Stenoheriades bifida , new species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Zootaxa 4370: 279ndash;282.;). Despite the small number of species, Stenoheriades is very diverse in form; there are four species groups that are as distinct as subgenera in other osmiine genera (Griswold 1985Griswold 1985:
Griswold, T. 1985. A generic and subgeneric revision of the Heriades genus-group. Logan: Ph.D. thesis, Utah State University. xiii + 165 pp.).

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.)

• Mesopleuron ventrally elongate, as long as length of scutumscutum:
  the large segment on top of the thorax located between the wings and behind the head
  or nearly so.
• Parapsidal line parapsidal line:
  the line that runs submedially along the scutum and corresponds to the median border of the site of origin for flight muscles
  linear and elongate.
• Proboscis proboscis:
  an elongated sucking mouthpart that is typically tubular and flexible
  long, extending well beyond the fossafossa:
  the large, deep groove on the underside of the head into which the proboscis folds
  in repose.
• Pronotal lobe pronotal lobe:
  a part of the pronotum located dorsally on the posterior margin of the pronotum and overlaps the anterior thoracic spiracle
  carinatecarinate:
  having keels or carinae
  .
• Propodeum propodeum:
  the last segment of the thorax
  basalbasal:
  originating at the foundation of a structure
  area with strong pits and posterior carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  across entire area.
• Female scopascopa:
  modified hairs for carrying pollen; often branched and dense hairs on the hind-leg, or on the ventral surface of the abdomen in Megachilidae
  present.
• Female tarsal claws simple.
• Male 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
  with crenulatecrenulate:
  having a finely scalloped or notched outline or edge
  or strongly dentate preapicalpreapical:
  referring to a section of a bee that is physically found just before the outermost (or apical) end of the section or segment
  ridge.
• 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
  apicallyapically:
  near or at the apex or end of any structure
  notched or bifidbifid:
  divided into two branches; forked
  .

May be confused with

Stenoheriades may be confused with Heriades due to a similar elongate build and coloration. However, Stenoheriades males lack the dentate preapicalpreapical:
referring to a section of a bee that is physically found just before the outermost (or apical) end of the section or segment
ridge on 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
, and 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 not visible. Female Stenoheriades have a shorter proboscisproboscis:
an elongated sucking mouthpart that is typically tubular and flexible
, which is not produced 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

There are no known invasives.

Host associations

Stenoheriades appear to exhibit varying levels of host specialization on Asteraceae (Müller and Trunz 2014). Some species are narrowly specialized on Anthemis, such as S. asiatica and S. coelostoma, whereas others (S. eingeddicus) visit Aster (Müller and Trunz 2014). Some species appear to be less specialized, such as S. marocanna which more broadly visits Cichoriodea (Müller and Trunz 2014).

Nesting behavior

Stenoheriades are solitary nesting bees, but little is known about their nesting habits. It is suspected that they build nests in wood-boring insect burrows in dead wood, and cell linings and partitions may be made of resin (Müller and Trunz 2014).

Distribution

Stenoheriades are widespread in the Afrotropical and western PalearcticPalearctic:
the largest biogeographic region; consists of Europe, Asia north of the Himalaya foothills, Northern Africa, and the northern and central parts of the Arabian Peninsula
regions (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). Although rare, their range is broad, encompassing southern Europe in southern Spain and Sicily, southeastern Europe in Bulgaria and Croatia, Turkey, the Arabian Peninsula, Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa to South Africa, and Madagascar (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). One species is known to have a disjunct distribution and is found in southern India (Griswold 2018Griswold 2018:
Griswold, T.L. 2018. First record of Stenoheriades Cockerell in tropical Asia: Stenoheriades bifida , new species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Zootaxa 4370: 279ndash;282.). Six undescribed species occur in the Afrotropical region (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

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

References

Griswold, T.L. 1985. A generic and subgeneric revision of the Heriades genus-group (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Doctoral dissertation, Utah State University, Department of Biology, 207 pp.
 
Griswold, T.L. 2018. First record of Stenoheriades Cockerell in tropical Asia: Stenoheriades bifida, new species (Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Zootaxa 4370:279-282.
 
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.
 
Müller, A. and V. Trunz. 2014. Palaearctic osmiine bee of the genera Hofferia and Stenoheriades (Megachilidae, Osmiini): biology, taxonomy, and key to species. Zootaxa 3765:175-186.