Anthophora

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Anthophora
Common fur bee (Anthophora plumipes) male on fingered lark spur ("Corydalis solida") in Altona, Hamburg.

Common fur bee ( Anthophora plumipes ) male on fingered lark spur ("Corydalis solida") in Altona, Hamburg.

Systematics
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Superfamily : Apoidea
without rank: Bees (Apiformes)
Family : Real bees (Apidae)
Genre : Anthophora
Scientific name
Anthophora
Latreille , 1803

Anthophora is a genus of the Apidae family within the bees . Anthophora includes more than 400 species and is known from all continents of the world (except Antarctica and Australia).

In German these bees are called fur bees , but the German name also applies to related genera, in particular to bees of the Amegilla genus . Some authors (e.g. Westrich) consider Amegilla to be Anthophora , but this is not recognized internationally.

features

The Anthophora bees often resemble bumblebees because they are also very hairy (German name). The bees are strongly built, their wings have no veins on the outer part, the front wings have three cubital cells of about the same size. They are good fliers who can sometimes stop in midair. Some species have distinct, mostly white hair bands on the abdominal segments. The face often has yellow or white markings. The glossa is often extraordinarily long (e.g. Anthophora plumipes : 19–21 mm, more than twice as long as the honey bee ). They can use it to suck nectar from deep calyxes. The hind tibia of the females are heavily hairy (splint brush). The tibiae and tarsi of the males often have conspicuous tufts of hair or eyelashes, and the femora and tibiae often have strange thickenings.

The native species are about 8 to 18 mm long. There are also smaller (e.g. in the subgenus Heliophila , which are 6 to 10 mm long) and larger species ( Paramegilla up to 24 mm).

Way of life

The Anthophora species are solitary, each female digs a nest and carries pollen into it. Sometimes there are also clusters of nests that can even be very large. Most species are polylectic, i.e. they use pollen from different plant families, flowers with long calyxes are often preferred (e.g. lungwort , adder's head , dead nettle , lungwort , sage ). Some species, such as A. balneorum and A. furcata, are oligolectic (on adder's head and mint ).

The preferred habitats are very different. Anthophora plumipes likes to nest in settlement areas, A. furcata on the edges of forests and in clearings, A. bimaculata in sandy areas. The substrates in which the females dig their nests are correspondingly different: in steep walls, walls, mortar, wood, but also in soil free of vegetation. In Nicaragua there is a species that nests in the immediate vicinity of an active volcano ( A. squammulosa ). One species in Utah can use its mandibles to drill holes in sandstone for nesting.

In many species the males hatch earlier in the year than the females (so the species are proterandric ). The males patrol in search of females on fixed trajectories that they have marked with scents. Sometimes you can find them in overnight places (individually or in groups) on plant stems.

The individual species hatch at different months, A. plumipes in spring, A. bimaculata in midsummer, in Central Europe there is only one generation per year, in the south (Mediterranean region) there are often several generations per year.

Some Anthophora species pollinate Ophrys orchids by pseudo-population . The orchid flower imitates female bees ( mimicry , through appearance and fragrance), the male bee tries to copulate with it and gets pollen packets attached, which it passes on to another flower.

Brood parasites: The native anthophore bees are parasitized by cuckoo bees of the genera Melecta , Thyreus and Coelioxys . They are also parasitized by oil beetle larvae and the club wasp Sapyga clavicornis .

Systematics

The genus Anthophora counts with 6 other genera to the tribe Anthophorini, subfamily Apinae. It is the most diverse and most widespread genus of the Anthophorini. The genus Amegilla is also very species-rich with more than 250 species. It is the sister group of Anthophora .

Anthophora is divided into 14 subgenera.

Native species

15 species have been recorded in Central Europe, 12 species are found in Germany. (v = lost)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MC Orr, JP Pitts, T. Griswold: Revision of the bee group Anthophora (Micranthophora) (Hymenoptera: Apidae), with notes on potential conservation concerns and a molecular phylogeny of the genus . In: Zootaxa . No. 4511 , 2018, p. 1–193 , doi : 10.11646 / zootaxa.4511.1.1 .
  2. ↑ a b J.S. Ascher, J. Pickering: Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f P. Westrich: The wild bees of Germany . E. Ulmer, 2018, ISBN 978-3-8186-0123-2 , pp. 198-204, 276, 649-657 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Ch. D. Michener: The Bees of the World . 2nd Edition. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8018-8573-0 , pp. 74, 742-750 .
  5. ↑ a b c d e f E. Scheuchl, W. Willner: Pocket dictionary of the wild bees of Central Europe . Quelle & Meyer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-494-01653-5 .
  6. ↑ a b c Species of solitary bees: fur bees (Anthophora). Retrieved September 7, 2019 .
  7. ↑ T. Hanson, JS Ascher: An unusually large nesting aggregation of the digger bee Anthophora bomboides Kirby, 1838 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the San Juan Islands, Washington State . In: Pan-Pacific Entomologist . tape 94 , no. 1 , 2018, p. 4-16 ( bioone.org ).
  8. ↑ HE Erenler et al .: Persistent nesting by Anthophora Latreille, 1803 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) bees in ash adjacent to an active volcano . In: The Pan-Pacific Entomologist . tape 92 , no. 2 , 2016, p. 1-12 .
  9. ^ A new bee species that excavates sandstone nests. (PDF) Retrieved September 7, 2019 (English).
  10. ↑ HF Paulus: How male insects are deceived by orchid flowers - pollination tricks and evolution in the Mediterranean ragwort genus Ophrys . In: Denisia . tape 20 . also catalogs of the Upper Austrian provincial museums Neue Serie 66, 2007, p. 255–294 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  11. ↑ A. Dubitzky: Phylogeny of the World Anthophorini (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Apidae) . In: Systematic Entomology . tape 32 , 2007, p. 585-600 .