Taxonomy
Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Anthidiini
Genus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Subgenus: Pseudoanthidium, Friese 1898
Species: Pseudoanthidium rhombiferum (Friese, 1917)
Background
Pseudoanthidium rhombiferum are small, 6–7 mm bees. They have predominantly black
integumentintegument:
a tough, protective outer layer
with symmetrical yellow spots on their head, legs,
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 often the
scutellumscutellum:
shield shaped plate behind scutum
. Their legs are yellow-orange and often black at the base. They have sparse, white
pubescencepubescence:
short, fine hair
that covers their bodies.
Distribution
Pseudoanthidium rhombiferum are known from Israel, Palestine, and Turkey (
Warncke 1980Warncke 1980:
Warncke, K. 1980. Die Bienengattung Anthidium Fabricius, 1804 in der Westpalaarktis und im turkestanischen Becken. Entomofauna 1: 119ndash;210.;
Grace 2010Grace 2010:
Grace, A. 2010. Introductory biogeography to bees of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Bexhill Museum, Sussex, United Kingdom.).
Host associations
Pseudoanthidium rhombiferum are
oligolecticoligolectic:
the term used to describe bees that specialize on a narrow range of pollen sources, generally a specific plant genus
on thistles of the Cardueae (
Grace 2010Grace 2010:
Grace, A. 2010. Introductory biogeography to bees of the eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Bexhill Museum, Sussex, United Kingdom.)
Nesting behavior
Little is known about the nesting biology of
Pseudoanthidium rhombiferum but most species of
Pseudoanthidium nest in pre-existing cavities like in wood, stems, galls or crevices (
Litman et al. 2021Litman et al. 2021:
Litman, J. R., Fateryga, A. V., Griswold, T. L., Aubert, M., Proshchalykin, M. Y., Le Divelec, R., Burrows, S. & Praz, C. J. 2022. Paraphyly and low levels of genetic divergence in morphologically distinct taxa: revision of the Pseudoanthidium scapulare complex of carder bees (Apoidea: Megachilidae: Anthidiini). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 195(4): 1287-1337.).
Known invasives
There are no known invasives.
