Osmia kohlii

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Osmia Panzer, 1806
Subgenus: O. (Osmia) Panzer, 1806
Species: Osmia kohlii Ducke, 1899
Common name: none

Overview

Osmia kohlii are black bees with vibrant red hair on terga (Peters 1978). Females have black hair on their head and thorax, contrasting with the bright hair on their abdomen (Peters 1978). Males have intermixed white and black hair on their head, light hair on the scutum, and black hair on the episternum (Peters 1978). Female body length is 14–15 mm, and male body length is 12–16 mm (Ducke 1900).

Diagnostic characteristics 

(modified from Peters 1978)

• Mouthparts much smaller than the length of the entire body when extended.
• Terga without apical hair bands.
• Terga with hair entirely red (or yellowish in old specimens) with no dark hairs intermixed.
• Female clypeus with lateral horns and an acutely pointed median projection. The disc of the clypeus is mostly punctured, with only a limited smooth impunctate area.
• Female scopa red.
• Male middle femur not distinctly expanded or angled.
• Male S6 with a clear gradulus basally.

May be confused with 

Osmia kohlii may be confused with O. cornuta and O. tricornis (Peters 1978). Female O. kohlii can easily be distinguished by the shape and puncturing of the clypeus as well as the combination of entirely dark hairs on the head and thorax and entirely red hair on the abdomen. Male O. kohlii can be differentiated from O. cornuta by the shape of the middle femur, which is not expanded in O. kohlii. The males of O. tricornis can be separated by the episternum which is primarily light-haired, in comparison to O. kohlii which is mostly dark-haired.

Phenology

Osmia kohlii adults have been recorded in flight from the end of March to the beginning of June (Peters 1978).

Host associations 

Osmia kohlii are generalists associated with flowers from 11 different families. Popaver, Ranunculus, and Cistaceae are important pollen hosts (Haider et al. 2013).

Nesting behavior 

unknown

Distribution

Osmia kohlii is native to the central Mediterranean region with specimens found in southern Italy, Sicily, Malta, and Corsica (Peters 1978). Unclear but possible identifications have been made in North Africa (Alfken 1914).

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References