Osmia tricornis

Taxonomy

Family: Megachilidae
Subfamily: Megachilinae
Tribe: Osmiini
Genus: Osmia Panzer, 1806
Subgenus: O. (Osmia) Panzer, 1806
Species: Osmia tricornis Latreille, 1811
Common name: none

Overview

Osmia tricornis are black bees with a metallic dark blue luster to the head and thorax and a coppery luster to the 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.). Females have dark brown hairs on the face, black hair on the thorax which can be reddish on the scutellumscutellum:
shield shaped plate behind scutum
, and the metasomametasoma:
the posterior part of the body
hair is an intense rusty red (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 have yellowish to rusty red hairs which are lighter on the head and darker on the metasomametasoma:
the posterior part of the body
(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.). Female length is from 13–15 mm, and male body length is 9–10 mm (Ducke 1900Ducke 1900:
Ducke, A. 1900. Die Bienengattung Osmia Panz. Ber. naturw.-med. Ver. Innsbruck 25: 1ndash;323.).

May be confused with 

Darker specimens of Osmia tricornis may be confused with O. cerinthidis, O. crassiclypeata, and O. rhodothemis rufa. Lighter specimens can easily be confused with O. kohlii (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.).

Phenology

Osmia tricornis adults have been recorded in flight from mid-May through to mid-July (Vicens et al 1994). O. tricornis flight time coincides with the decline of nesting activity of O. cornuta (Vicens et al 1994).

Host associations 

Osmia tricornis are known to harvest pollen from plants that produce little to no nectar. O. tricornis have preference for three different plant families: Cistaceae, Papaveraceae, and Fabaceae (Vicens et al 1994).

Nesting behavior 

Osmia tricornis are known to nest in preexisting cavities. They have been observed nesting in empty snail shells, drilled borings in wooden blocks, hollow stems, and insect burrows in the ground or dead wood, including abandoned cells in exposed nest of Chalicodoma (Vicens et al. 1994Vicens et al. 1994:
Vicens, N., Bosch, J. and Blas, M. 1994. Biology and population structure of Osmia tricornis Latreille (Hym., Megachilidae). Journal of Applied Entomology 117: 300ndash;306.).

Distribution

Osmia tricornis specimens have been recorded in the foothills of the Italian Alps, as far north as Lyon in France, and across Tunisia, Morocco, and Libya (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.).

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References

Ducke, A. 1900. Die Bienengattung Osmia Panz. als Ergänzung zu Schmiedeknecht’s “Apidae europaeae” Vol. II in ihren palaearctischen Arten monographisch bearbeitet Bericht des Naturwissenschaftlich-Medizinischen Vereins in Innsbruck 2: 1–323.

Haider, M., Dorn, S., Sedivy, C. and Müller, A. 2014. Phylogeny and floral hosts of a predominantly pollen generalist group of mason bees Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 111: 78–91.

Peters, D.S. 1978. Systematik und Zoogeographie der west-paläarktischen Arten von Osmia Panzer, 1806 s. str., Monosmia Tkalcu, 1974 und Orientosmia n. subgen. (Insecta: Hymenoptera: Megachilidae) Senckenbergiana Biologica (Frankfurt) 58: 287–346.

Vicens, N., Bosch, J. and Blas, M. 1994. Biology and population structure of Osmia tricornis Latreille (Hym., Megachilidae). Journal of Applied Entomology 117: 300–306.