The following material taken with permission from: Mitchell, T.B. 1962. Bees of the Eastern United States, Volume II. North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. Tech. Bul. No.152, 557 p.
Anthidium resembles the other anthidiine genera in having conspicuous yellowish or whitish maculations and in the very short stigma of the front wing. It differs from all of these in lacking membraneous pads, the arolia, between the claws. In addition, mandibles in the female are multi-dentate, with from 5 to 7 or more small teeth along the expanded margin. The pleura are not vertically carinate, nor are the prothoracic tubercles carinate. In the males, sterna 5-8 are retracted and to a considerable degree modified. The maxillary palpi are 2-segmented.
Only two species of Anthidium are known to occur in the East, but in the West more than fifty species and subspecies are listed in the Catalog of Hymenoptera (p. 1139). They nest commonly in the soil, using plant hairs in the construction of the cells, and are known to use pebbles to fill in cavities above the cells.
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