Hofferia

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Taxonomy

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

Overview

Hofferia are black to reddish-black, slender, and elongate bees with apical bands of hair on their terga. They range in body length from 8.5–15 mm (Michener 2007).

Diversity

Hofferia contains 2 species worldwide (Michener 2007); none are known to occur in the U.S. or Canada.

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Michener 2007)

• Arolia present.
• Labrum longer than clypeus (Fig 5).
• Middle tibia with one apical spine.
• Preoccipital carina present .
• Pronotal lobe without carina.
• Scutum with acute posterior lateral angle.
• Female labrum without preapical tuft or fringe of hairs (Fig 5).
• Female S6 with median apical spike (Fig 7).
• Female tarsal claw simple.
• Male S1 produced and truncate.
• Male S1 without brush of hair under the margin.
• Male T6 with irregular nodulose preapical carina.

May be confused with

Hofferia may be confused with Chelostoma and Protosmia due to their similar elongate builds and external characteristics, but they can be distinguished by the combination of characters above (Michener 2007).

Known invasives

There are no known invasives.

Host associations

Hofferia specializes on Carduoideae (Asteraceae) (Müller and Trunz 2014).

Nesting behavior

Hofferia are solitary nesting bees, but little is known about their nesting habits. Hofferia schmiedeknechti builds nests in wood-boring beetle excavations in dead wood (Müller and Trunz 2014). Thin-cell partitions are made from plant resin (Rozen and Praz 2016). A nest plug is made from resin mixed with small pebbles (Müller and Trunz 2014; Rozen and Praz 2016).

Distribution

Hofferia ranges throughout the Mediterranean from Morocco, Algeria, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece (Michener 2007).

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