Osmia (Euthosmia)

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Osmia Panzer, 1806
Subgenus: Euthosmia Sinha, 1958
Common name: none

Overview

Osmia (Euthosmia) are slender, blue-green bees with white hairs (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.). They range in body length from 5–7 mm.

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., unless otherwise stated)

• Gena gena:
  the cheek or side of the head
  narrower than the eye in profile.
• Hind coxacoxa:
  the basal segment of the leg
  without strong longitudinal carinacarina:
  a clearly defined ridge or keel, not necessarily high or acute; usually appears on bees as simply a raised line
  along inner ventralventral:
  of, on, or relating to the underside of an animal, or segment of an animal
  angle.
• Malar space shorter than width of the scapescape:
  the basal, and usually the longest, segment of the antennae
  .
• Median flagellar segments are nearly 2 times as long as they are broad.
• Female clypeusclypeus:
  a section of the face below the antennae, demarcated by the epistomal sutures
  truncation thin, without tufts or brushes of hair beneath margin.
• Female hypostomalhypostomal:
  the notched region underneath the head and behind the mandible that holds the folded tongue
  area impunctateimpunctate:
  marked with punctures or pits
  and shining, with a single row of long, curled hairs along the laterallateral:
  relating, pertaining, or attached to the side
  margin (Rust and Clement 1972Rust and Clement 1972:
  Rust, R.W. and S.L. Clement. 1972. The biology of Osmia glauca and Osmia nemoris. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 46: 548ndash;562.).
• Female mandiblemandible:
  bee teeth, so to speak, usually crossed and folded in front of the mouth
  is robust and three-toothed.
• 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
  apicalapical:
  near or at the apex or end of any structure
  margin is evenly convexconvex:
  curved outward
  .
• Male S2S2:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  is not enlarged.
• Male S2S2:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  , S3S3:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  , and S4S4:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  are transverse.

May be confused with

Osmia (Euthosmia) may be confused with O. (Melanosmia) due to a lack of enlarged S2S2:
the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
and transverse S2S2:
the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
, S3S3:
the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
, and S4S4:
the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
. However, they can be differentiated by the above diagnostic characteristics (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Host associations

Analysis of pollen found in O. (Euthosmia) glauca nests shows that they collect pollen from Collinsia spp., and are suspected to be specialists on this genus (Rust and Clement 1972Rust and Clement 1972:
Rust, R.W. and S.L. Clement. 1972. The biology of Osmia glauca and Osmia nemoris. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 46: 548ndash;562.).

Nesting behavior

Osmia (Euthosmia) construct nest cells out of mud in hollow stems and abandoned Sceliphron nests. Nest cells are made in clusters or in linear arrangements depending on the cavity used (Rust and Clement 1972Rust and Clement 1972:
Rust, R.W. and S.L. Clement. 1972. The biology of Osmia glauca and Osmia nemoris. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 46: 548ndash;562.).

Diversity

Osmia (Euthosmia) contains one species, O. glauca (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.).

Distribution

Osmia (Euthosmia) can be found in the U.S. west of the Rocky Mountains, primarily in California (Michener 2007Michener 2007:
Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World (2nd ed.). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.; GBIF 2019GBIF 2019:
GBIF.org. 14 June 2019. GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.wmukot).

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

References

GBIF.org (14 June 2019) GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.wmukot

Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World. 2nd ed. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 953 pp.

Rust, R.W. and S.L. Clement. 1972. The biology of Osmia glauca and Osmia nemoris. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 46: 548-562.