Yellow Dryland Bee: S1, Female, ventral

Yellow Dryland Bee (Callohesma sulphurea)

Class:

Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)

Order:

Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera)

Family:

Colletid Bee (Bee: Colletidae) iNaturalist Observation

Species:

Yellow Dryland Bee (Callohesma sulphurea)

This Photo:

S1, Female, ventral

Thank you Heath Hunter for identifying, Dr John Ascher & Asaph Whelan (Asaph01) for confirming and Susanna Heideman, Trevor Sless & Brian Dagley (BDagley) for helping with the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere
~5mm, found in Dryland Tea-tree (Melaleuca lanceolata) flower.
A bit bembix like, but there are some masked bees that are smooth faced like this too. Very wasp like.
The brown side abdominal splotch is equal on both sides, so not damage or stain, but part of it's markings.
Heath said:
"To determine the sex of Callohesma

In females, the tarsal claws each bear a submedian tooth. I think we can see this on the hind leg in the abdomen shot.
In females, the inner hind tibial spur is strongly pectinate. I think we can see this in photo the ventral shot - hind leg at bottom of photo has two small red spurs and a larger pectinate one.
Females have specialised long hairs on the front legs only. These hairs are hooked or bent at the tip, and they are found on areas of the coxae, trochanters and femora.
Can't see any males on PaDIL that look like a match.

Female Key

Bee almost entirely yellow or green.
No black marks extending forward from ocelli.
No black lines extending forward from posterior margin of mesoscutum.
Length <7mm.
Head about as long as wide."

We have since added additional photo's trying to highlight these tiny features.

Similar Species: Yellow Dwarf Bee (Xanthesma (Xanthesma) sp)

This species is

Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.

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