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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Leaf-cutter Bees, etc.
Adults small to large; 6–18 mm long; very hairy; with branched or feathery hairs on the body. Solitary insects.
Head. Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). The labrum longer than broad. Tongue longer than the prementum; pointed. Labial palps with segments 1 and 2 much longer than the distal two, and flattened. Mentum and submentum present.
Thorax. Pronotum more or less straight at the back; short, not extending back to the tegulae. Cenchri absent. Wings present. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma (?), or without a pterostigma; with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 2. Discoidal cells 2. Hind-wings with closed cells. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae with spurs specialised for a cleaning rôle. Hind basitarsi wider than the other segments.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction; short-waisted. The ‘waist’ simple. Visible abdominal segments 6 (females), or 7 (males). The gaster concolorous, or colour-patterned; when concolorous, black, grey or green; when patterned, black-and-orange, black-and-white, black-and-grey, dark-and-light brown, blue-and-whitish. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; modified as a retractable sting.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; socially parasitic on hosts selected by the mother and predacious (occasionally, being raised in the nests of other megachilids), or feeding on material manufactured by the adults.
British representation. Species in Britain 36; Anthidium, Chelostoma, Chalicodoma(?), Coelioxys, Heriades, Hoplitis, Megachile, Osmia, Stelis.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Apoidea.
Illustrations. • Anthidium manicatum (Muff-bodied Bee: B. Ent. 61). • Anthidium manicatum (detail: B. Ent. 61). • Anthidium manicatum (dissections: B. Ent. 61). • Anthidium manicatum: B. Ent. 61, legend+text. • Anthidium manicatum: B. Ent. 61, text cont.. • Osmia parietina Curtis (Ambleside Osmia: B. Ent. 222). • Osmia parietina (detail): B. Ent. 222. • Osmia parietina (dissections): B. Ent. 222. • Osmia parietina: B. Ent. 222, legend+text. The original Curtis description of O. parietina. • Osmia parietina: B. Ent. 222, text cont.. • Chelostoma florisomne: B. Ent. 628. • Chelostoma florisomne: B. Ent. 628, legend+text. • Chelostoma florisomne: B. Ent. 628, text cont.. • Coelioxys vectis (Isle of Wight Coelioxys: B. Ent. 349). • Coelioxys vectis (detail: B. Ent. 349). • Coelioxys vectis (dissections: B. Ent. 349). • Coelioxys vectis: B. Ent. 349, legend+text. • Coelioxys vectis: B. Ent. 349, text cont.. • Megachile willughbiella (Willughby's Leaf-cutter Bee: B. Ent. 218). • Heriades truncorum (Larger Heriades: B. Ent. 504). • Heriades truncorum: B. Ent. 504, legend+text. • Heriades truncorum: B. Ent. 504, text cont.. • Chelostoma, Coelioxys (Saunders XL). MEGACHILIDAE. 3 , 4, 10 and 11, Chelostoma florisomne: male (3), female (4), male genital armature (10), and 5th ventral segment (11). 5 and 12, Chelostoma campanularum: male, and male genital armature. 6 and 13, Coelioxys quadridentata: female and (13) genital armature of the male. From Saunders (1896, Plate XL). • 3 Coelioxys and 3 Megachile species (Saunders XLI). MEGACHILIDAE. 1–2: Coelioxys vectis, male (1) and female. 3, Coelioxys inermis (female). 4 and 5: Megachile maritima, male (4) and female. 6, Megachile circumcincta (female). 7–12, genital armature of males: 7, Coelioxys vectis; 8, Coelioxys rufescens; 9, Coelioxys inermis; 10, Megachile maritima; 11, Megachile willughbiella; 12, Megachile circumcincta. 13–15, 6th ventral segments and (a) hairs of disc much enlarged: 13, Megachile maritima; 14, Megachile willughbiella; 15, Megachile circumcincta. From Saunders (1896). • 3 Megachile and 2 Osmia species (Saunders XLII). MEGACHILIDAE. 1, Megachile lignisecta (male). 2, Megachile leachella (female). 3 and 4: Osmia rufa, male (3) and female. 5 and 6: Osmia pilicornis, male (5) and female. 7–8, Megachile lignisecta: 7, genital armature of male; 8, 6th ventral segment of male; and 8a, hairs of disc much enlarged. 9–10, Megachile centuncularis: 9, genital armature of male; 10, 6th ventral segment of male; 10a, hairs of disc much enlarged. 11–12, Megachile leachella: 11, genital armature of male; 12, 6th ventral segment of male; 12a, hairs of disc much enlarged. 13, Osmia rufa: genital armature of male. 14, Osmia pilicornis, genital armature of male. From Saunders (1896). • 6 Osmia species (Saunders XLIII). MEGACHILIDAE. 1, Osmia xanthomelana (male). 2, Osmia parietina (female). 3 and 4: Osmia caerulescens, male (3) and female. 5 and 6: Osmia aurulenta, male (5) and female. 7–11, genital armature of males: 7, Osmia xanthomelana; 8, Osmia parietina; 9, Osmia caerulescens; 10, Osmia leaiana; 11, Osmia aurulenta. From Saunders (1896). • 1 Anthidium, 1 Osmia, 2 Hoplitis and 1 Stelis species (Saunders XLIV). MEGACHILIDAE. 1, Osmia bicolor (female). 2 and 3: Hoplitis cf. leucomelana, male (2) and female. 4 and 5: Anthidium manicatum, male (4) and female. 6, Stelis punctulatissima (female). 7–11, genital armature of males. 7, Osmia bicolor; 8, Hoplitis cf. leucomelana; 9, Hoplitis spinulosa; 10, Anthidium manicatum; 11, Stelis punctulatissima. From Saunders (1896). • Osmia xanthomela: Stephens 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
