Genus Rhopalolemma

2 spp.

  Rhopalolemma robertsi Roig-Alsina, 1991

  Rhopalolemma rotundiceps Roig-Alsina, 1997

Arizona and southeastern California

Deserts

This is a fairly rare genus. The first species described (in 1991) was R. robertsi...based on a single female collected on May 3, 1973 from 8 km south of 29 Palms, San Bernardino Co., CA...in an area of the southern Mojave Desert fairly well-collected from for many decades. When more specimens of the genus were discovered in southern AZ they were initially thought to be R. robertsi, but were subsequently recognized as a new species, R. rotundiceps...published in 1997. At that time R. robertsi was still only known from the single female from 29 Palms. By then R. rotundiceps had also been collected in the vicinities of Organ Pipe National Monument, AZ and Quarzite, AZ.

Roig-Alsina, A. (1991) Cladistic analysis of the Nomadinae s. str. with description of a new genus. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 64: 23-37. (1st page from JSTOR)

Rozen, J.G. Jr, Roig-Alsina, A. & Alexander, B.A. (1997) The cleptoparasitic bee genus Rhopalolemma, with reference to other Nomadinae (Apidae), and biology of its host Protodufourea (Halictidae: Rophitinae). American Museum Novitates, 3194, 1–28. (Full Text)