Osmia melanocephala

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Osmia Panzer, 1806
Subgenus: O. (Osmia) Panzer, 1806
Species: Osmia melanocephala Morawitz, 1875
Common name: none

Overview

Osmia melanocephala are black bees with a slight metallic blue hue on the head and thorax and a metallic greenish hue on the abdomen. Females have black to dark brown hair on the head and thorax and yellowish-red hair on the abdomen (Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.). Males are densely covered with red-yellow hair on their thorax and have light reddish-brown hair on their abdomen (Peters 1978Peters 1978:
Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-palauml;arktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287ndash;346.; Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.). Female body length is 10–13 mm, and male body length is 10–11 mm (Peters 1978Peters 1978:
Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-palauml;arktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287ndash;346.; Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.).

Diagnostic characteristics 

(modified from Peters 1978Peters 1978:
Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-palauml;arktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287ndash;346.; Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.)

• Mouthparts much smaller than the length of the entire body when extended.
• Female clypeusclypeus:
  a section of the face below the antennae, demarcated by the epistomal sutures
  unmodified, without horns, median projection, or emarginationemargination:
  a notched or cut out place in an edge or margin, can be dramatic or simply a subtle inward departure from the general curve or line of the margin or structure being described
  .
• Female scopascopa:
  modified hairs for carrying pollen; often branched and dense hairs on the hind-leg, or on the ventral surface of the abdomen in Megachilidae
  golden yellow.
• Male abdomen with entirely pale, yellow to reddish pubescencepubescence:
  short, fine hair
  , no black hairs intermixed.
• Male antenna with F1 as long as F2.
• Male S3S3:
  the plates on the underside of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S7, or S8
  medially emarginateemarginate:
  a notched or cut out place in an edge or margin, can be dramatic or simply a subtle inward departure from the general curve or line of the margin or structure being described
  .
• Male T7T7:
  the segments on the top side of the abdomen, often abbreviated when referring to a specific segment to T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, T6, or T7
  with median emarginationemargination:
  a notched or cut out place in an edge or margin, can be dramatic or simply a subtle inward departure from the general curve or line of the margin or structure being described
  .

May be confused with 

Osmia melanocephala females can look similar to O. cornuta and O. kohlii that have entirely dark brown or black hair on the head and thorax and reddish hair on the abdomen. O. melanocephala are easily distinguished by their simple, unmodified clypeusclypeus:
a section of the face below the antennae, demarcated by the epistomal sutures
(Peters 1978Peters 1978:
Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-palauml;arktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287ndash;346.). Males can look similar to species like O. taurus that can sometimes have entirely pale red hair on their abdomen, but O. melanocephala can be differentiated by the long first flagellar segment (Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.).

Phenology

Osmia melanocephala adults have been recorded in flight from the end of May to the end of June (Peters 1978Peters 1978:
Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-palauml;arktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287ndash;346.).

Host associations 

Osmia melanocephala are polylecticpolylectic:
bees that collect pollen from the flowers of a variety of unrelated plants
and have been observed collecting from 5 different plant families, with a strong preference for Fabaceae. Other known pollen sources are Rosaceae, Lonicera, and Boraginaceae (Haider et al. 2013Haider et al. 2013:
Haider, M. S. Dorn, C. Sedivy, A. Muuml;ller. 2013. Phylogeny and floral hosts of a predominantly pollen generalist group of mason bees (Megachilidae: Osmiini). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 111: 78ndash;91.).

Nesting behavior 

unknown

Distribution

Osmia melanocephala specimens have been recorded in Xinjiang, China, northwestern Mongolia, and Turkmenistan (Wu 2006Wu 2006:
Wu, Y. 2006. Hymenoptera: Megachilidae. Fauna Sinica, Insecta. Vol. 4. Science Press, Beijing.).

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References