Hoplitis (Anthocopa) infrapicta ( Cockerell, 1916 )

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 : 5-6

Hoplitis (Anthocopa) infrapicta ( Cockerell, 1916)

Megachile infrapicta Cockerell, 1916: 203 .

Female type: TYPE / B.M. Type HYM.17a.2510 / (Cockerell’s handwriting): Megachile infrapicta Ckll. TYPE / (red label): OSMIA / Ex Coll. C.K.B. Oranjezicht, Nov. 30.07 ( NHML) .

Osmia infrapicta Cockerell : Cockerell 1920: 257; Cockerell 1931: 339; Cockerell 1932c: 439; Cockerell 1935: 72–73; Cockerell 1936b: 38; Cockerell 1937b: 285; Cockerell 1938: 230.

Hoplitis (Anthocopa) infrapicta (Cockerell) comb. nov.: Michener 1968: 339 (nesting).

Hoplitis (Anthocopa) infrapicta (Cockerell) : Eardley and Urban 2010: 212.

Flower visiting. Unknown.

Nesting. This bee was found by Charles Michener ( Michener 1968) nesting on a slope behind Noordhoek on the Cape Peninsula. The nests were in a slightly sloping path of loose gravelly clay. Two nests of one cell each were found. As they were only 2 cm apart and one had been completed and closed and the other was being provisioned, Michener suggested that they were made by the same bee. The burrow leading to each cell was vertical. The cell itself was curved and slanting. The cell wall was rough, irregular, pebbly, not or scarcely compacted. The lining was of thin purple petals, four or five layers thick. In the cell, still being provisioned, the petals reached the surface of the soil. Closure of the cell had been achieved by turning the uppermost parts of the petals inward. The inner petals had first been bent over and a little loose soil had been placed on top of them. Then other petals had similarly been turned in and soil added. Finally the outermost petals had been bent in, with probably one or two additional petal fragments placed on top of these, and soil added to the level of the ground surface.