Hoplitis papaveris (Latreille, 1799)

Herrera Mesias, Fernanda & Weigand, Alexander M., 2021, Updates to the checklist of the wild bee fauna of Luxembourg as inferred from revised natural history collection data and fieldwork, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 64027-64027 : 64027

Hoplitis papaveris (Latreille, 1799)

Hoplitis papaveris Common names: Osmie du Coquelicot (French), Mohn-Mauerbiene (German).

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: MNHNL21866 ; recordedBy: Svenja Christian; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Hoplitis papaveris (Latreille, 1799); order: Hymenoptera; family: Megachilidae; genus: Hoplitis; specificEpithet: papaveris; taxonRank: species; scientificNameAuthorship: (Latreille, 1799); vernacularName: Osmie du Coquelicot (French), Mohn-Mauerbiene (German); Location: country: Luxembourg; locality: Mertert ; decimalLatitude: 49.70359; decimalLongitude: 6.48171; Event: samplingProtocol: Caught by hand; eventDate: 04-06-2015; Record Level: institutionCode: MNHNL; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen

Diagnosis

Male: A medium sized (9-11 mm) mason bee with a black body covered in yellow-brown hair and short antennae (Fig. 2 a). Tergite 6 is strongly curved (Fig. 2 b) and tergite 7 presents a characteristic forked edge (Fig. 2 c). The midfield part of the propodeum has a polished terminal surface (Fig. 2 d).

Voucher specimen (MNHNL21866): Adult male. Body length of 8.8 mm.

Ecology

A ground-nesting bee that builds its nest in sandy soil, using pieces of poppy petals ( Papaver rhoeas ) to line the brood cells ( Günter 1997, Amiet et al. 2004). Its flight season spans from late May to mid July ( Amiet et al. 2004).

Conservation

Hoplitis papaveris is classified under the IUCN category "Least Concern (LC)" ( Nieto et al. 2014), but it is listed in the National Red Lists and Red Data Books of the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland, emphasising that further research is needed regarding the species population sizes, trends and threats ( Lhomme 2014).

Figures

Figure 2. Hoplitis papaveris (Latreille, 1799) (Mertert, specimen MNHNL 21866). a. Dorsal view; b. Lateral view showing abdomen curvature; c. Abdomen, showing the two terminal lobules of tergite 7; d. Detailed view of the propodeum (shiny surface). Scale bars = 1 mm. Photos: MNHNL. Background edited using GIMP 2.8.22 (The GIMP Development Team 2020).