Hoplitis (Anthocopa) similis ( Friese, 1909 ) Kuhlmann & Gess & Koch & Gess, 2011

Kuhlmann, M., Gess, F. G., Koch, F. & Gess, S. K., 2011, Southern African osmiine bees: taxonomic notes, two new species, a key to Wainia, and biological observations (Hymenoptera: Anthophila: Megachilidae), Zootaxa 3108, pp. 1-24 : 9-10

Hoplitis (Anthocopa) similis ( Friese, 1909) comb. nov.

Osmia similis Friese, 1909: 317 , 321.

Female type: Capland / (handwritten): ♀ Mus. Wien, S. Africa / (Friese’s handwriting): Osmia similis ♀ 1904 Friese det. / (red label): Type / Coll. Friese / Zool. Mus. Berlin ( ZMHB) .

Osmia similis Friese : Brauns 1926: 221 (♂); 222 (nesting).

Osmia forficulina Cockerell, 1921: 202 . syn. nov.

Male type: Basutol., Likhoele, Dieterlin / (Cockerell’s handwriting): Osmia forficulina Ckll. TYPE / (red label): Type / (orange label): SAM / SAM-HYM-BO 1406 (SAMC).

Hoplitis rhodesiae Cockerell, 1944: 248–249 .

Hoplitis anthodemnion Michener, 1968: 355–359 (♂, ♀); 337–342 & 349 (nesting);

Gess 1981: 24, 60, 61 (nesting); Gess and Gess 1990: 24–25 (nesting).

Hoplitis (Anthocopa) similis (Friese) : Gess and Gess 2003: 177 (flower visiting).

Flower visiting. Females have been collected from Asteraceae ( Berkheya heterophylla (Thunb.) O. Hoffm. ) (one specimen), Boraginaceae ( Anchusa capensis Thunb. ) (two specimens), and Scrophulariaceae ( Selago species ) (one specimen), all near Grahamstown, Eastern Cape.

Nesting. Nesting aggregations on banks were investigated at Avontuur, Longkloof ( Michener 1968) and on the farm Hilton, near Grahamstown ( Gess 1981) both in the Eastern Cape. The banks were, respectively, a hard dry clay roadside bank and a relatively soft sandstone bank. Each nest consisted of a single cell and the burrow leading to it. The cells are lined with four to six layers of very thin petal discs, on Hilton cut from flowers of Barleria (Scrophulariaceae) . Excavation of the burrows was not observed. After oviposition the outer ends of the petals are bent inward to close the cell and mud is pushed in as a plug, which becomes convex on its inner surface. The entrance burrow is completely filled with clay, apparently applied as mud, up to the surface of the bank. As the clay used in nests at both sites was a different colour from the substrate it is suggested that it is collected at some distance from the nest. Michener (1968) found old cells being re-used. The cell is filled to a depth of 9 to 10 mm with firm yellow provision after which oviposition takes place, the large egg positioned lying on the provision. Pollen from the provisions was not identified.

Brauns (1926) recorded the species as nesting in close proximity to one another in pseudocolonies in the ground (given as „in der Erde“, therefore presumably in horizontally rather than vertically presented ground).