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IDnature guide

• Bee species

Identification Extracted from: LaBerge, W. E. 1963. New Species and Records of Little-known Species of Melissodes from North America (Hymenoptera: Anthophriadae). Bulletin of The University of Nebraska State Muesem, Vol. 4. Pp 227-242.

Ten additional specimens of this relatively rare species have been studied. The records for these are given below. TEXAS: Hidalgo' County, I ~,March 28, 1954, D. J. and J. N. Knull. UTAH: Hatton (3 miles west): 5 ~ ~, June 2, 1959, on Erige1'on compositus and 1 ~ on Tetradymia canescens. Mexico. MEXICO: Tlalnepantla: 1 ~, September 1903, W. L. Tower. ZACATECAS: Fresnillo (9 miles south): 1 ~,August 10, 1954, on Phacelia sp., Ray F. Smith, and 1 ~,August 10, 1954, R. F. Smith, E. G. Linsley, and J. W. MacSwain. These specimens are in the collections of Ohio State University at Columbus, Utah State University at Logan, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Nebraska State Museum at Lincoln.

Extracted from: Melissodes opuntiella Cockerell 19111 Can. Ent. 43. p. 131

Appears in this excerpt as Melissodes optuniella.

Male.—Length about 9 mm. ; black. with white hair, that on head and thorax ail white, without any ochraceous or fuscous ; head broad ; clypeus pale yellow, with the usual spots, and the lower margin rather broadly piceous or reddish ; mandibles with a large yellow spot ; labrum entirely black, with white hair ; scape short, black ; flagellum very broadly bright orange fulvous beneath, unusually short for a Melissodes, reaching only to about middle of scutellum ; mesothorax and scutellum shining, with scattered small but distinct punctures ; tegulae testaceous, with white hair ; wings clear, nervures dusky ferruginous ; legs black, with dull ferruginous tarsi ; hair of legs white, ferruginous on inner side of basitarsi ; abdomen finely punctured, the hind margins Of the segments broadly hyaline, and with dull white hair-bands ; last two segments with short but evident lateral teeth. Not unlike the Mexican M. otomita Cresson, but with the face broader, the antennae shorter (especially the apical joints), and the mesothorax and scutellum more finely and sparsely punctured.

Female.—Length about 10 mm.; clypeus black, closely punctured ; eyes green ; flagellum short, bright ferruginous beneath beyond the second joint ; hair of head and thorax white, without dark, as in the male ; first abdominal segment with a patch of white hair at each posterior corner, second with a dense basal hair-band and a broader apical one, both straight and uniform ; third and fourth also with broad white apical hairbands, third with grayish-white tomentum basally ; fifth and sixth with the hair entirely dark chocolate ; scopa of hind legs loose, plumose, adapted for carrying the large pollen of the Opuntia; hair on inner side of hind basitarsi ferruginous.

Hab.—Brownsville, Texas, at flowers of Opuntia lindheimeri, both sexes, March 23. 190S (Jones and Pratt); Hondo, Texas. at flowers Of Opuntia, male, April 30, 1908 (J. D. Mitchell); Cotulla, Texas, at Opuntia, female, May 5, 1905 (J. C. Crawford). -The type is a male from Brownsville.

Names Scientific source:

• Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist, Ascher and Pickering.