An unusually squat new species of the parasitic bee genus Thyreus from Oman (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with notes on two additional species showing Afro-Arabian distributions

A new bee species of the genus Thyreus Panzer, 1806 is described from Oman, Thyreus bufoniformis spec. nov. This species shows an unusual morphology for the genus, namely that it is comparatively longitudinally compressed and stout. It appears most closely related to Thyreus hyalinatus (Vachal, 1903), an Afro-Arabian species that is newly reported from Niger. Thyreus dimidiatipuncta (Spinola, 1838) is also newly reported from the Arabian Peninsula from the United Arab Emirates as well as southern Israel and, surprisingly, Morocco. This combination of both very widespread and very localised species within the same genus illustrates the challenge of characterising its diversity in arid regions.

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