Heterodasypoda Michez 2004

Subgenus Heterodasypoda

Morphological remarks. The subgenus Heterodasypoda is characterized by the following features (according to Michez et al. 2004b; with some corrections): maxillary palpi and galea subequal in length; galea (Figs 8–10) with sparse and superficial punctation, except D. morotei with dense small tubercles; margin of galea with bristles along its entire length; malar space shorter than the pedicel; nervulus (cu-v) antefurcal; apex of S6 with long and dense brown hairs in male (Figs 24–26); apex of S7 weakly concave and with two large sclerotized latero-apical process (Figs 28–30); base of S8 without hooks (Figs 32–34), inner (dorsal) surface of the apical part in the middle of marginal zone of S8 with transverse carina (Figs 36–38; shown by white arrows), which is not reaching lateral edges and deeply carved or even completely divided into 2 parts, especially in D. pyrotrichia (Fig. 38); base of gonostylus without narrow tooth (Figs 44–46, 48–50, 52–54), the internal ventral lobe of gonostylus with scaly surface on apex (Figs 60–62, 64–66).

Species composition. Heterodasypoda is the least speciose subgenus within Dasypoda: before the description of D. michezi sp. nov. it included only 3 described species of Mediterranean distribution: D. albimana Pérez 1905 from south of France, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Tunisia, D. morotei Quilis 1928 from Spain and Portugal and D. pyrotrichia Förster 1855 from Bulgaria, France, Greece, Macedonia, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Syria, and Turkey (Michez et al. 2003, 2004a, 2004b; Ascher & Pickering 2017). The maximum species diversity of Heterodasypoda is found in the Iberian Peninsula, so a discovery of a new species of this subgenus is not surprising for the region.

Biology. The nesting biologies of Heterodasypoda are still unknown. The studied species from other subgenera build branched nests in the soil. Unlike the vast majority of other ground-nesting bees, they do not line the walls of cells with secretory material (Radchenko & Pesenko 1994).