Osmia (Hemiosmia) balearica Schmiedeknecht, 1886

Müller, Andreas, 2020, Palaearctic Osmia bees of the subgenera Hemiosmia, Tergosmia and Erythrosmia (Megachilidae, Osmiini): biology, taxonomy and key to species, Zootaxa 4778 (2), pp. 201-236 : 212

Osmia (Hemiosmia) balearica Schmiedeknecht, 1886

Osmia balearica Schmiedeknecht, 1886: 177 . Type material: Lectotype ♂, by designation of Haeseler (2005), “Palma” ( Spain: Balearic Islands), Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.

Literature records. SPAIN: Almería (Almerimar, Cabo de Gata, Guardias Viejas, Roquetas de Mar) , Baleares (Mallorca), Barcelona (Barcelona), Valencia (Albufera, Benidorm, El Saler) ( Tkalců 1975; Haeseler 2005, 2008).

New records. SPAIN: Almería: Las Negras , 50 km E Almería , 27.4.2003, 2♀ (leg. J. Halada); Baleares: Mallorca, Son Serra, 22.4.2008, 1♀ (leg. B. Padron Mendez); Cuenca: Cuenca, 26.5.1987, 1♀ (leg. M. Korb); Murcia: 25 km SW Cartagena, 12.5.2003, 1♀ (leg. J. Halada); Valencia: Valencia, Dehesa, 15.4.1934, 1♂ (leg. G. Mari).

Distribution. Southeastern and eastern Spain from Almería to Barcelona including the Baleares (Mallorca). To the present knowledge, the range of O. balearica does not overlap with that of the more westernly distributed O. uncicornis .

Pollen hosts. Oligolectic on Fabaceae (Tab. 1, Fig. 1 ; Haeseler 2008) with strong preference for Loteae (e.g. Lotus ).

Nesting biology. O. balearica nests in excavated, 3–5 cm long burrows in loose sandy ground of coastal zones, often in small aggregations ( Haeseler 2008). At the end of the burrow one to several urn-shaped brood cells of 1 cm length and 0.6 cm maximal width are constructed immediately beside each other. The nest entrance is often near dead plants, whose roots serve to fix the cells in the ground. The cells are entirely made of leaf pulp collected from Lotus , Medicago , Ononis (all Fabaceae ), Convolvulus (Convolvulaceae) or Cistus (Cistaceae) ( Haeseler 2008; G. Le Goff personal communication). The construction of a single brood cell requires 61–73 flights with leaf pulp and lasts more than two days, the provisioning of the cell needs 18 foraging bouts completed within 3.5–4.3 h and the construction of a nest with a single cell takes about three days ( Haeseler 2008).

Behaviour. The males were observed to pull the crenulate underside of their antennae jerkily along the female antennae during courtship ( Fig. 4 ; Haeseler 2008).

Figures

FIGURES 1–7: Osmia (Hemiosmia). 1: Female of O. balearica on Lotus creticus (Fabaceae; photo V. Haeseler). 2: Female of O. uncicornis digging out nest burrow in loose soil (photo V. Haeseler). 3: Excavated brood cells of O. uncicornis. 4: Copulating pair of O. balearica (photo V. Haeseler). 5–7: Male terga 5–6 of O. uncicornis (5), O. argyropyga (6) and O. difficilis (7).