Dasypoda hirtipes
| Trouser bee | ||||||||||||
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Trouser bee ( Dasypoda hirtipes ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dasypoda hirtipes | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1793) |
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Dasypoda hirtipes is a bee from the genus of the trouser bees ( Dasypoda ) within the family Melittidae .
features
The bees reach a body length of 12 to 15 millimeters. The females can be easily recognized by their characteristic, very long hairbrushes on the hind legs, the black-brown end fringes and the white bandages on the tergites of the second to fourth abdominal segments. They are also hairy yellow-brown on the head and thorax and have a clearly darkened area on the mesonotum . Males have a completely long, shaggy, yellow-brown and whitish hairy body and long, thin legs. The trouser bee can also be distinguished from similar species by their specialization in daisy family . The similar, related species gather on cardaceae .
Occurrence
The species is distributed in southern and central Europe, north to 63 ° north latitude, and is also found in England. It is widespread and common in northern Central Europe in particular, and is rarer in southern Central Europe. It populates sandy areas such as sand pits, sandy flood and railway embankments, sandy roadsides, inland dunes, embankments with loose loess, or sand fields, but also sand joints between floor slabs. The bees fly in Central Europe one generation per year. Females appear from around mid-June, males from mid-July to September. In Switzerland it is listed as endangered on the Red List of Threatened Species (Category 3), in Germany it does not appear to be endangered overall, but it is in individual regions in the southwest, such as in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.
Way of life
The females create their nests in sand or loose soil. The nests are found grouped in small to large collections. The females dig a 20 to 60 centimeter deep, initially sloping, later vertically downward passage. From this, many round brood cells are created on several levels in different directions. One cell is made every day and provisions are made for six to ten collective flights in around four hours. If a cell cannot be completed on the same day, it is abandoned. The species is specialized in collecting nectar and pollen on daisy family, and especially accumulates genera of the subfamily Cichorioideae , more rarely, on knapweed and representatives of Cynareae . However, no species of the Asteroideae are collected. The pollen is piled dry in loose piles weighing 38 to 43 milligrams and only later mixed with nectar and mixed into bales weighing 230 to 350 milligrams. Three feet are attached to the bottom of these bales, presumably for longer durability. The eggs are laid on top of the ball, then the cell is sealed with soil. More than 40 milligrams of pollen can be transported per flight through the eponymous hairbrushes on the hind legs. The bees overwinter as resting larvae. Cuckoo bees of the species are not known, but Miltogramma oestraceum from the meat fly family parasitizes the trouser bee.
Synonyms
- Dasypoda plumipes (tank, 1797)
- Dasypoda altercator ( Harris , 1776)
Most Hymenopterologists consider the older name Dasypoda altercator to be the noun dubium , as Harris' description is not precise enough to reliably identify the species and the origin of the described animal remains doubtful.
supporting documents
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
- Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Felix Amiet: Bees. Central European species, way of life, observation. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 .
Web links
- www.wildbienen.de
- Phylogeny of the bee family Melittidae (Hymenoptera: Anthophila) based on combined molecular and morphological data
