The genus Centris is a group of neotropical origin and considered an important pollinator of several ecosystems. Despite its importance, Colombia has little information on its diversity, particularly in the south of the country. Considering the above, this work had as objective to know the diversity of bees of the genus Centris (Fabricius 1804) in the Desert of the Tatacoa located in the department of Huila. Monthly sampling was carried out between December 2014 and January 2016 in an area of approximately 8 km2. The bees were collected directly with an entomological net and trap nests made of different materials were placed. Once collected, the specimens were identified to the taxonomic level possible and the sternum 8 and genitalia of the males were described. The diversity of bees of the genus Centris was calculated during the study and the effect of climatic variables on temporal richness and abundance was evaluated. Five species distributed in 136 specimens were identified with Centris varia and Centris trigonoides as the most dominant species. The remaining species are new reports for the department. According to the Shannon diversity estimate, the Tatacoa Desert has a low diversity (1.64). The sternum character 8 and the genitalia of males showed differences in two of the five genitalia species may become important for the identification of individuals. An inversely proportional relationship was found between the temperature and quantity of individuals where at a higher temperature a smaller number of species. Trap nests may be an efficient capture method, despite only obtaining 4% hatching, a high colonization of these was observed.