Thyreus hirtus ( de Beaumont, 1940 )

Wood, Thomas, Leclercq, Vincent, Schmid-Egger, Christian & Praz, Christophe, 2025, A contribution to the knowledge of the genus Thyreus Panzer in the West and Central Palaearctic (Hymenoptera, Apidae), with two new species, taxonomic updates, host relationships, and a key to European species, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift 72 (2), pp. 259-302 : 259-302

Thyreus hirtus ( de Beaumont, 1940)

Crocisa hirta de Beaumont, 1940: 169, ♀ ♂ [ Switzerland, NMB, not examined]

Material examined.

Wood (2023) presented specimens of Thyreus hirtus ; additional examined specimens are detailed in Suppl. material 1.

Notes.

Lieftinck (1968) and Wood (2023) both gave the year of publication as 1939, but Berland (1940) clarified that only pages 1–108 (issues 1–2) were published on 20 Apr. 1939, with pages 109–184 (issues 3–4) published on 30 Apr. 1940. The year of publication is therefore 1940. Wood (2023) demonstrated that most records of T. hirtus from North Africa actually belong to T. rasmonti Wood, 2023 , or were simply misidentified specimens of other species such as Thyreus mauretaniensis (Strand, 1911) .

One unclear specimen mentioned by Lieftinck (1968: 90) was that of a male from Crete. This specimen is in the RMNH collection ( RMNH.INS.1714260 ) and was re-examined and re-determined as T. histrionicus , as it has entirely white hair on the face and the genital capsule is typical for T. histrionicus (see key below for precise criteria). A further specimen from Sarepta (= Volgograd) in European Russia was also mentioned by Lieftinck as coming from the Amsterdam museum collection. Although this collection has been integrated into the RMNH collection, this particular specimen could not be located. Given the enormous distance between the nearest confirmed T. hirtus records in Italy and southern European Russia (some 2,500 km), this record is excluded on the grounds of improbability.

The revised distribution of T. hirtus is therefore clearly West Mediterranean (Fig. 22 ). This conforms to the distribution of two Echium - specialised Anthophora Latreille, 1803 : Anthophora ( Paramegilla) balneorum Lepeletier, 1841 and Anthophora ( Paramegilla) femorata (Olivier, 1789) (Fig. 22 ), which are suspected to be the hosts ( Baldock et al. 2018). Although we do not have conclusive evidence or direct observation of these taxa at nest sites, the circumstantial evidence is substantial: T. hirtus and An. femorata are particularly common together in north-western Iberia and south-eastern France, T. hirtus and An. balneorum in the western Alps, and the overall distributions map closely together. Anthophora balneorum sensu lato in North Africa requires taxonomic attention, which will be provided in short order (TJW, in prep).

Distribution.

Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Algeria ( Lieftinck 1968 partim; Wood 2023; Fig. 22 ).

Figures

Figure 22. Distribution of Thyreus hirtus (Beaumont, 1940) (red circles) along with its two hosts, Anthophora femorata (Olivier, 1789) (open blue triangles) and Anthophora balneorum Lepeletier, 1841 (filled yellow squares). Distributional data are not comprehensive.