Author: Panzer, 1806

Type species: Nomada scutellaris Fabricius, 1781, monobasic.
Synonyms: Crocisa Jurine, 1801 (suppressed by Commission Opinion 135, 1939); Crocissa Panzer, 1806; Crocisa Jurine, 1807.
Clade: Anthophila
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Nomadinae
Tribe: Melectini
Distinctive traits
  • Black bees with patterns of short and appressed white hairs (sometime blueish or greenish)
  • 3 submarginal cells
  • flat scutellum extended in an emarginate crest posteriorly.
Pictures of distinctive traits
Morphologically close genera, and how to distinguish them:
  • Melecta - Thyreus
Thyreus species have short and appressed hairs and a flat scutellum extending posteriorly in an emarginate crest.
Melecta species have long hairs and two spines on the scutellum.
General comments on Thyreus species identification
Male identification requires extraction of the genitalia.
Sorry, but the species identification tool is not yet available for Thyreus. 
Please check the reference(s) at the bottom of the page for traditional keys.
List of the 15 Thyreus species found in Europe (UICN 2014 + Rasmont et al. 2017)
Thyreus (Thyreus) aberrans (Morawitz, 1875)
Thyreus (Thyreus) affinis (Morawitz, 1874)
Thyreus (Thyreus) elegans (Morawitz, 1877)
Thyreus (Thyreus) hellenicus Lieftinck, 1968
Thyreus (Thyreus) hirtus (De Beaumont, 1940)
Thyreus (Thyreus) histrionicus (Illiger, 1806)
Thyreus (Thyreus) hohmanni Tkalcu, 1994
Thyreus (Thyreus) orbatus (Lepeletier, 1841)
Thyreus (Thyreus) picaron Lieftinck, 1968
Thyreus (Thyreus) piceus (Meyer, 1921)
Thyreus (Thyreus) plumatus (Meyer, 1921)
Thyreus (Thyreus) ramosus (Lepeletier, 1841)
Thyreus (Thyreus) scutellaris (Fabricius, 1781)
Thyreus (Thyreus) tricuspis (Pérez, 1883)
Thyreus (Thyreus) truncatus (Pérez, 1883)
References with identification keys for some of the species:
  • Beaumont, J. de. 1939. Les Crocisa de la faune française (Hym. Apidae). Annales de la Société entomologique de France, 108: 161-171.
  • Lieftinck M.A. 1968. A review of Old World Species of Thyreus Panzer (=Crocisa Jurine) (Hym., Apoidea, Anthophoridae) Part 4. Palearctic Species. Zoologische Verhandelingen, 98: 1-139, 4 pls.
  • Osytshnjuk, A.Z., Panfilov, D.V. & Ponomareva A.A. (1978) Superfamily Apoidea. In: Tobias, V.I. (Ed). Key to the insects of European part of the USSR. Vol. 3. Hymenoptera. Pt. 1. Nauka, Leningrad, 279-519. (In Russian)
Online resources:
Atlas hymenoptera (Europe & Belgium)
Discover Life (World)
WestPalBees (West Palearctic)
Page contributors:
  • Adrien Perrard (Dec. 2019)

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References used to write this page:
  • Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World, 2nd Edition. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
  • Michez D., Rasmont P., Terzo, M., Vereecken, N. 2019. Abeilles d'Europes. Hymenoptères d'Europes, Volume 1. N.A.P. Editions.
  • Nieto, A., Roberts, S. P., Kemp, J., Rasmont, P., Kuhlmann, M., García Criado, M., ... & Michez, D. 2014. European red list of bees. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 98. (IUCN 2014)
  •  Rasmont, P., Devalez, Jelle, Pauly, A., Michez, D. & Radchenko, V.G. 2017. Addition to the checklist of IUCN European wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Annales de la Société entomologique de France 53: 17-32.