Silk bees
| Silk bees | ||||||||||
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Common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Colletes | ||||||||||
| Latreille , 1802 |
The silk bees ( Colletes ) are a genus from the family of the Colletidae within the bees . Of them 58 species occur in Europe , in Central Europe there are 21. The genus is distributed worldwide, but it is absent in Australia .
features
The bees reach a body length of 7 to 16 millimeters. Just like the mask bees ( Hylaeus ), the silk bees have a short, bilobed tongue. They can be distinguished from other species of bees by the number and size of cubital cells and the tapering end of the abdomen of the females. The abdomen is black and usually has wide, light hair bands on the rear edge of the tergite . Only the spring silk bee ( Colletes cunicularius ) lacks these bandages. Pollen is collected on hairbrushes on the tibiae of the hind legs, the cups on the underside of the femora of the hind legs, and on the sides of the propodeum .
Way of life
The bees fly from late June to late autumn, with the peak in July and August. Only the spring silk bee flies much earlier. The drones hatch earlier than the females and fly around the ground in large numbers in search of females.
The females create their nests solitary, but often in large groups. Flat or slightly sloping terrain with as little vegetation as possible is preferred. The common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus ) builds its nests on steep walls and walls. The nest is always dug by yourself, with some species preferring loose sand, others preferring hard sand, as well as sandstone and mortar joints. Large colonies can even cause damage to houses. Depending on the species, either a deep main passage is dug, from which side passages branch off to the brood cells, or brood cells are laid one after the other in partially forked nest passages. The brood cells themselves can be laid out horizontally or almost vertically. They are lined with a silky layer at the end of the abdomen and at the labium by means of secretions from two glands , which is why the genus bears its German name. In addition, a secretion from the glands of the mandibles is distributed on the walls, which protects the brood from fungal and bacterial attack. Pollen mixed with nectar is introduced into the cells, then they are closed with a prepared lid and the passages filled. The cells can also be used again by the following generations.
Presumably, all silk bees, with the exception of Colletes impunctatus , specialize in the pollen of certain plant genera ( oligolectic activity ). Silk bees are parasitized by cuckoo bees from the genus of felt bees ( Epeolus ), only the spring silk bee is parasitized by the blood bee Sphecodes albilabris .
Species (Central Europe)
- Colletes albomaculatus (Lucas, 1849)
- Colletes caspicus Morawitz, 1874
- Colletes collaris Dours, 1872
- Spring silk bee ( Colletes cunicularis ) (Linnaeus, 1761)
- Common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus ) Smith, 1846
- Colletes floralis Eversmann, 1852
- Colletes fodiens (Geoffroy, 1785)
- Colletes gallicus Radoszkowski, 1891
- Colletes graeffei Alfken, 1900
- Salt silk bee ( Colletes halophilus ) Verhoef, 1944
- Ivy silk bee ( Colletes hederae ) Schmidt & Westrich, 1993
- Colletes hylaeiformis Eversmann, 1852
- Colletes impunctatus Nylander, 1852
- Colletes marginatus Smith, 1846
- Colletes mlokossewiczi Radoszkowski, 1891
- Colletes nasutus Smith, 1853
- Colletes nigricans Gistel, 1857
- Colletes punctatus Mocsáry, 1877
- Colletes sierrensis Frey-Gessner, 1903
- Colletes similis Schenk, 1853
- Heather silk bee ( Colletes succinctus ) Linnaeus, 1758
swell
Web links
- www.wildbienen.de
- Bee encyclopedia of silk bees: genus and species
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .