Andrena Clarkella
| Andrena Clarkella | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Andrena Clarkella | ||||||||||||
| Kirby , 1802 |
Andrena clarkella is a sand bee fromthe Andrenidae family .
features
The animals show a significant gender dimorphism , as is mostly the case with bees.
female
At 11–13 mm, the females are about the same size as honey bees . Due to their thick hair, they appear a little wider than this. In their typical form, they are colored orange on the upper side of the thorax and on the scopae and otherwise completely black. There is a color variant in which the color on the upper side of the thorax is greyish instead of orange.
male
The males are 9–10 mm smaller than the females. They are abundantly covered in light brown hair. There is often some dark hair near the eyes, while the hair is lighter on the forehead. The basic color of her body is dark, only the hind tibia and feet are regularly lightened.
Similar species
- Females resemble Andrena bicolor , but this is significantly smaller. Females of the gray form resemble Andrena vaga . However, the females of the willow sand bee have dark scopae.
- Males resemble several other male sand bees.
Occurrence
The animals are distributed holarctic. They are found in North America, Europe, and East Asia. They inhabit cool and temperate latitudes in the north up to the Arctic Circle. They prefer to build their nests in sandy soil with sparse vegetation. Locations under large trees are popular. The nests are created individually or in loose groups. They are dependent on the presence of willows .
Way of life
Andrena clarkella is one of the earliest sand bees in Central Europe. Sometimes they come out as early as the end of February. Your flight time lasts until the end of April. The males come out just before the females. Then they search suitable places on the ground for hatching females. Later, the males can mainly be found on sunlit tree trunks, which they fly in a zigzag from bottom to top in search of females. After the mating season, the males usually die by the beginning of April, while the females live longer and create nests. Andrena clarkella specializes in pasture . This means that the females only gather food for their brood on pastures. Their range when searching for pollen is about 300 m and they take an average of 95 minutes for each round. To collect nectar for your own consumption, other plants such as B. Coltsfoot or Dandelion visited.
Parasites
Nomada leucophthalma is a breeding parasite in Andrena clarkella . Bombylius major is also a possible parasite on the nests. Andrena clarkella is also attacked by the great fan wing Stylops melittae .
swell
- John L. Neff: Components of nest provisioning behavior in solitary bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Apidologie, Springer Verlag, 2008, 39 (1), pp.30-45. <hal-00891932>
Web links
- wildbienen.de Andrena clarkella (German)
- BWARS Andrena clarkella (Eng.)
- S. Falk Andrena clark ella flickr (Engl.)
- Atlas Hymenoptera (Engl.)
Individual evidence
- ↑ M. Gebhardt & G. Röhr: On the bionomy of sand bees Andrena clarkella (Kirby), A. cineraria (L.), A. fuscipes (Kirby) and their cuckoo bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Drosera (1987)