A large and impressive mining bee. Females have pale buffish-brown facial hair, pale greyish-brown hairs around the front and rear of the thorax and short darker brown hairs around the centre of the thorax. The abodmen is black and shiny with white tufts of hair along the lateral margins and a pale brown terminal fringe. It has a rather ‘deep’ head shape.

Distribution: This species has a rather disjunct distribution, occuring in southern Portugal, central Spain, North Macedonia and mainland Greece. Elsewhere it is found in Turkey, Iran, Jordan, Israel, Armenia and Azerbijan.

Flight Period: Flies in a single generation between April and June.

Habitat: There is little published informational, but I have observed it in dry steppic grassland and scrubby dry woodland clearings.

Flowers Visited: Females appear to be oligolectic on Apiaceae, especially Thapsia villosa and Conium maculatum.

Personal Records: I have observed this species southwest of Rivas-Vaciamadrid in central Spain. Here females were not uncommon on various apiaceae flowers, both in woodland clearings and open steppic grassland.