Hylaeus signatus (Panzer)

Description.

Medium-sized black bee (total length 7-9 mm in both sexes, wing length 4.5-5.5 mm in females and 4-6 mm in males) with roundish face and conspicuous yellowish-white face markings, without curved grooves (fovea) along eye margin; mandibles and legs black; white hair bands on lateral sides of tergite 1 (Fig. 6b).

Distinguishing features.

Relatively large; male with mask not exceeding insertion point of antennae (Fig. 5 c), female face pattern with the two spots larger than in Hylaeus pictipes and more triangular in outline (Fig. 5e); Reseda specialist.

General distribution.

Madeira (introduced); North Africa; Eurasia, from Portugal in the West to northern Scandinavia and Uzbekistan in the East.

Distribution in the Azores.

All islands except São Jorge.

First record.

2001 (Santa Maria; H. Schaefer, unpublished data).

Nesting.

In existing cavities (twigs, earth, abandoned nests of other hymenoptera, etc.), sometimes in dense aggregations.

Social behaviour.

Solitary bee.

Foraging.

Oligolectic, usually Reseda specialist, but in the Azores also observed on Tamarix africana ( Tamaricaceae).

Phenology.

June-August.

Material.

Corvo (Vila do Corvo), 04.08.2014, 1 male; Graciosa, June 2012, 3 females, 7 males on Tamarix; Terceira (airport), 08.08.2014, 1 female, 1 male; Santa Maria, 1 female, all leg. H. Schaefer, coll. TUM (B8-B20; B45).

The COI sequence of specimen H. Schaefer B12 (TUM), acc. no. KX824778, is identical to a Hylaeus signatus sequence from Germany (KJ837965, see Fig. 2).