Prodioxys

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Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Dioxyini
Genus: Prodioxys Friese, 1914
Subgenera: none
Common name: none

Overview

Prodioxys are distinct-looking bees with long, erect, red hairs on the head, thorax, and T1 that do not appear in other Dioxyini. They range in body length from 9–11 mm (Michener 2007).

Diversity

Prodioxys contains 3 species (Michener 2007); none are known to occur in the U.S. or Canada.

Diagnostic characteristics

(modified from Michener 2007)

• Axilla rounded or straight.
• Forewing with first recurrent vein entering first submarginal cell or nearly meeting first transverse cubital vein.
• Metanotum with median tooth.
• Pronotal lobe with carina absent.
• Scutellum produced laterally to form a tooth or spine.
• Female mandible bidentate.
• Female S6 narrowly rounded, only slightly extending beyond T6 if at all (Fig 4).
• Male genitalia are elongate.

May be confused with

Prodioxys may be confused with other Dioxyini due to similar coloration or builds, but Prodioxys lack the long red hairs on the anterior portion of the body as well as the lateral pronotal angle (Michener 2007).

Known invasives

There are no known invasives.

Host associations

Prodioxys are cleptoparasitic bees, and females do not gather pollen from flowers since the larvae develop parasitically on their host’s pollen provisions (Michener 2007). They will, however, visit a wide variety of flowers for nectar.

Nesting behavior

Distribution

Prodioxys occurs from Algeria to Egypt and Israel (Michener 2007).

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