Haetosmia altera ( Peters 1974 ), 2017

Müller, Andreas & Griswold, Terry, 2017, Osmiine bees of the genus Haetosmia (Megachilidae, Osmiini): biology, taxonomy and key to species, Zootaxa 4358 (2), pp. 351-364 : 353-355

Haetosmia altera ( Peters 1974)

Osmia (Haetosmia) brachyura altera Peters 1974: 294 . Type material: Holotype ♀, “Gulbahar, 1700 m, 8– 25.6.1956 ” (Afghanistan), Senckenberg Frankfurt.

New records. IRAN: Isfahan : Central province, Kashan—Abuzed-abad, 25– 27.5.1976, 1♀, 1♂ (leg. Holzschuh, Ressl) . TURKMENISTAN: Ashgabat, 2.7.1928, 1♀ (leg. V. Gussakovskiy) . UZBEKISTAN: Navbakhor , 30 km N of Kokand, 13.5.1994, 1♂ (leg. M. Halada) ; PAKISTAN: Killi Sarda , 12 km S of Quetta, 22.5.1984, 1♂ (leg. J. Rozen, Lodhi, Stupakoff) ; Pishin , 40 km N of Quetta, 23– 27.5.1984, 2♀, 6♂ (leg. J. Rozen, Lodhi, Stupakoff, R.J. McGinley) .

Distribution. From central Iran over southern Turkmenistan eastwards to eastern Uzbekistan, northern Afghanistan and western Pakistan ( Fig. 9 ).

Pollen hosts. All six pollen loads (from three different localities in Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan) exclusively consisted of pollen of Heliotropium , suggesting a probable exclusive preference for this plant genus as pollen source..

Nesting biology. Unknown.

Notes. Peters (1974) considered H. altera to be a subspecies of H. brachyura ( Morawitz 1875) . However, the distribution areas of the two taxa, which distinctly differ morphologically e.g. in the length of the vertex and the relative length of the second segment of the labial palpus, partly overlap in the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan. Therefore, we consider the subspecies H. brachyura altera to be a species of its own, i.e. H. altera ( Peters 1974) , stat. nov.. H. altera has a distinctly larger distribution area than H. brachyura , which seems to be restricted to the Karakum and Kyzylkum Desert.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Distribution of the six Haetosmia species. Green squares = H. circumventa; blue circles = H.ethiopiensis; orange circles = H.vechti; red triangles = H. altera; blue diamonds = H. brachyura; light blue square = H. pakistaniensis. Made with Natural Earth (www.naturalearthdata.com).