Colletidae

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Colletidae
Common silk bee (Colletes daviesanus)

Common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus )

Systematics
Class : Insects (Insecta)
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Subordination : Waist Wasps (Apocrita)
Superfamily : Apoidea
without rank: Bees (Apiformes)
Family : Colletidae
Scientific name
Colletidae
Lepeletier , 1841

The bees - family Colletidae was once considered to be the most original bee family and was therefore given the German name Urbienen , a phylogenetic classification that is now highly questioned.

Some Colletidae are goiter collectors , which means that they do not have any external pollen collecting devices and are therefore sometimes referred to as goiter bees . The presumption that this could be an original feature is considered refuted. The physique of mask bees, for example (small, black, hairless, elongated-cylindrical body shape), which is reminiscent of some digger wasps , is interpreted as an adaptation to the special way of life. The strongest argument for an original status of the family is the short, broad tongue, which is widened at the front end, with two columns, two lobes, sometimes pulled out in two points. All females and almost all males have such a tongue, which is found in digger wasps but not in any other bees. Another indication of the group's monophyly is the parchment-like lining these bees put on their brood cells.

It is a group of bees of relatively different shapes. There are very small bees (a few millimeters) to moderately large bees (15 mm). The abdomen can be almost completely bald, but also long hairy. As already mentioned, the short, broad tongue is characteristic.

The females carry the pollen either on their hind legs or in the crop.

The bees in this family are always solitary bees . The females lay the eggs in brood cells, which they coat with a covering of cellophane or parchment-like material by spreading a glandular secretion. This coating probably prevents the pollen-nectar mixture brought in as larval food from drying out.

The family contains 5 subfamilies with a total of 54 genera and approx. 2000 species. It is found all over the world, but is most species-rich in South America and Australia . In Australia more than 50% of the bee species found belong to it. In the temperate zones of the northern hemisphere only the two genera of the silk bees ( Colletes ) and the mask bees ( Hylaeus ) occur.

Subfamilies and genera

Females of Hylaeus variegatus on the inflorescence of a field man litter

Web links

Commons : Colletidae  - collection of images, videos and audio files