Diadasia is a genus of
bees in family
Apidae. Species of Diadasia are
oligolectic, specialized on a relatively small number of plant species.
Their host plants include
asters,
bindweeds,
cacti,
mallows, and
willowherbs, although mallows are the most common and likely ancestral host plant for the whole genus. Its tribe is
Emphorini.[1]
In the
Sonoran Desert, Diadasia rinconis is considered the "cactus bee" as it feeds almost exclusively on a number of Sonoran Desert cactus species, its life cycle revolving around the flowering of the native species of cacti.[2] Members of this genus suffer attacks from a variety of
parasitoids, including these
families:
Bombyliidae,
Mutillidae,
Ripiphoridae,
Meloidae.
[3]
Species
These 42 species belong to the genus Diadasia.[4][5][6]