Nomada cuneata (Robertson 1903)

Gibbs, Jason, Ascher, John S., Rightmyer, Molly G. & Isaacs, Rufus, 2017, The bees of Michigan (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila), with notes on distribution, taxonomy, pollination, and natural history, Zootaxa 4352 (1), pp. 1-160 : 57

Nomada cuneata (Robertson 1903) (ruficornis group: bidentate mandible)

County records: Allegan, Antrim, Berrien, Cass, Charlevoix, Delta, Gogebic, Isabella, Kalkaska, Mackinac, Marquette, Ontonagon, Ottawa, Van Buren.

Notes. A cleptoparasite of Andrena vicina ( Miliczky & Osgood 1995) . Nomada cuneata is a large dark red bee with two long modified setae on the hind tibial apex. One is long and white and the second is thick and red. This is reminiscent of putative N. bella and N. maculata , but the setae are much closer to each other. Additional study is needed of this group to clarify species boundaries and Michigan records. Rodeck (1931, 1951) treated this name as a subspecies of N. lepida (see entry below).Robertson (1903) described four forms of Gnathias cuneatus : decemnotatus, octonotatus, sexnotatus and quadrisignatus, that have been treated as junior synonyms ( Alexander & Schwarz 1994; Rodeck 1951) but that warrant further scrutiny.

Material examined. Van Buren Co.: 1 km SW Breedsville, 42.3406 -86.0819, 16 May 2016, Barbarea vulgaris, J. Gibbs, K. Gundersen (1 ♀ MSUC:RI) ; 2.5 km NW Breedsville , 42.3576 -86.0982, 16 May 2015, Cerastium vulgatum, J. Brokaw, S. Way (1 ♀ MSUC:RI) ; 3.5 km NW Gobles , 42.3824 -85.9147, 18 May 2015, Cerastium vulgatum (1 ♀ MSUC:RI) ; 4.5 km W Grand Junction , 42.4006 -86.126, 22 May 2015, Barbarea vulgaris, J. Gibbs (1 ♀ MSUC:RI).