Wainia (Caposmia) elizabethae ( Friese, 1909 )

Kuhlmann, M., Gess, F. G., Koch, F. & Gess, S. K., 2011, Southern African osmiine bees: taxonomic notes, two new species, a key to Wainia, and biological observations (Hymenoptera: Anthophila: Megachilidae), Zootaxa 3108, pp. 1-24 : 17

Wainia (Caposmia) elizabethae ( Friese, 1909) spec. rev.

( Figs 5g –h, 8a–d)

Osmia elizabethae Friese, 1909: 317 , 320.

Osmia elizabethae Brauns, 1926: 212-214 .

Osmia outeniqua nomen nudum: Anonymous 1958: 33.

Osmia (Caposmia) elizabethae Friese : Peters 1984: 360, 381-383.

Osmia sp. : Gess and Gess 1988: 248, Figs 14: 17 & 18 (nesting in snail shells).

Hoplitis sp. : Gess and Gess 1990: 30, Fig. 10 (nesting); Gess and Gess 1998: 352, Figs 22.20a & b (nesting in snail shells). Wainia (Caposmia) elizabethae (Friese) : Griswold and Michener 1998: 234.

Wainia (Caposmia) elizabethae: Gess and Gess 2007: 217 (nesting in snail shells).

Wainia (Caposmia) elizabethae Brauns : Gess and Gess 2008: 96, 101, 108, 109 (nesting in snail shells).

Eardley and Urban (2010) in their catalogue of Afrotropical bees erroneously synonymized W. elizabethae with W. algoensis misunderstanding Peters (1984) who recognized that the male specimen described by Brauns (1926) as belonging to W. elizabethae in fact is W. algoensis . However, the description of W. elizabethae is based on a female specimen representing a different species that is not identical with W. algoensis .

Flower visiting. Unknown.

Nesting. This bee was recorded nesting in empty shells of terrestrial snails in sandy coastal areas from Still Bay in the west to Port Alfred in the east ( Gess and Gess 2008). The nests consist of one to three cells constructed consecutively in the helix of the shell (voucher specimens AMGS). Each cell is closed by means of a seal built of sand grains cemented together with an unidentified resinous substance probably collected by the bee from plants. The final nest seal, of a similar nature to the cell closures but situated not far from the shell aperture, is separated from the outermost provisioned cell by a vestibular cell filled with loose sand ( Gess and Gess 1988, 1990, 1998, 2008).

At Riet River, Wainia nests in snail shells were found, however, only fragmentary remains of the bees were present. These were tentatively identified as W. (C.) elizabethae .

The shells used were those of an indigenous snail, Tropidophera ligata (Müller) (Pomatiidae) and an exotic snail Theba pisana (Müller) (Helicidae) ( Figure 10a and b), which has spread eastwards from Cape Town at least as far as East London. However, the shells of T. ligata for which the highest percentage of use was recorded seem to be preferred to those of T. pisana . It would appear that the low spiral of T. pisana is less suitable for nest construction than the high spiral of T. ligata ( Gess and Gess 2008) .