Eucera

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Eucera
Male of the longhorn bee Eucera nigrescens

Male of the longhorn bee Eucera nigrescens

Systematics
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Superfamily : Apoidea
without rank: Bees (Apiformes)
Family : Real bees (Apidae)
Genre : Eucera
Scientific name
Eucera
Scopoli , 1770

Eucera is a genus of the Apidae family within the bees . In German these bees are called " long horn bees ", but the German name also applies to related genera and corresponds to the Eucerini tribe. The genus contains about 390 species and is distributed in the Palaearctic , especially in the steppe areas of Europe and Asia.

features

The unusually long antennae (Greek eu = well, good, kéras = horn) of the males are striking and give their name , and they usually have a yellow head shield. The females have a broad abdomen, usually with light-colored hair ties. The splint brush on the hind legs, which is used to collect pollen, consists of strong, light-colored hair. The native animals are 8 to 20 mm long.

Way of life

Eucera longicornis female on common pea, Lathyrus sylvestris

Longhorn bees only have one generation per year, the males usually hatch two to three weeks earlier than the females, so they are proterandric . Some of them stay at the nesting sites and sometimes have typical trajectories along their nectar sources (e.g. E. nigrescens ). The females of the indigenous Eucera species are mostly specialized in pollen from butterflies , so they are oligolectic. They are often found on sweet peas and flat peas .

They live solitary and nest in the ground, especially in places with little vegetation; sometimes the nests are in colonies. The males spend the night, sometimes sociable, on flowers or cling to plants. They can also be found this way in bad weather.

In the Mediterranean region, the males of some Eucera bees pollinate the flowers of orchids of the genus Ophrys . These imitate female bees in appearance and smell ( mimicry ). When attempting copulation (" pseudocopulation "), the males thus attracted are attached to a pollen packet with which they fly to the next flower. So pollinated z. B. Eucera longicornis the bumblebee herb Ophrys holoserica .

Cuckoo bees that parasitize native Eucera species are Nomada sexfasciata and N. nobilis , as well as the felt bee Triepeolus tristis and the cone bee Coelioxys polycentris .

Systematics

The genus Eucera has recently been taxonomically edited (both morphologically and with DNA analysis). The previous genus Tetralonia is now placed as a subgenus to Eucera . The former genus Tetraloniella is a synonym of Tetralonia. The previous genus Cubitalia is a synonym of Eucera (subgenus Eucera ) . The previous genera Notolonia and Ulugombakia are synonymous with Tetralonia .

Subgenera (approximate number of species in brackets):

  • Tetralonia (100)
  • Xenoglossa (40)
  • Xenoglossodes (40)
  • Cemolobu s (1)
  • Xenoglossa (8)
  • Peponapis (15)
  • Syntrichalonia (2)
  • Synhalonia (100) (is partly regarded as a separate genus.)
  • Eucera s. st. (130)

Further analysis (which is currently in progress) is expected to require further taxonomic changes, e.g. B. because the current subgenus Xenoglossodes is paraphyletic.

Native species

In Austria there are 18 ( Eucera incl. Tetralonia ), and in Switzerland eight species, in Germany eight species. According to Scheuchl, 20 species of Eucera sl have currently been identified in Central Europe . (The following list is not exhaustive.)

  • Eucera alticincta Fleaweed longhorn bee (= Tetralonia alticincta ) (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera (Eucera) chrysopyga (= Eucera pollinosa ) (A)
  • Eucera cineraria (D, CH)
  • Eucera dentata Knapweed longhorn bee (= Tetralonia dentata ) (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera interrupta vetch longhorn bee (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera longicornis June longhorn bee (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera macroglossa Mallow longhorn bee (= Tetralonia malvae ) (D, A)
  • Eucera nigrescens May longhorn bee (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera pollinosa (= Tetraloniella pollinosa auct. = Eucera (Tetraloniella) pollinosa ) (A,? CH)
  • Eucera salicariae ( Tetralonia salicariae = Tetraloniella salicariae auct.) Purple loosestrife longhorn bee (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera interupta (D, A, CH)
  • Eucera fulvescens (= Tetraloniella fulvescens ) (A, CH)
  • Eucera inulae (= Tetralonia inulae ) (A, CH)
  • Eucera hungarica (= Tetralonia hungarica auct. = Synhalonia hungarica ) (A, CH)
  • Eucera punctulata (A)
  • Eucera parvicornis (= Cubitalia parvicornis ) (? A)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c A. Dorchin, Margarita M. López-Uribe, Christophe J. Praz, Terry S. Griswold, Bryan N. Danforth: Phylogeny, new generic-level classification, and historical biogeography of the Eucera complex (Hymenoptera: Apidae) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 119 , February 1, 2018, ISSN  1055-7903 , p. 81–92 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.10.007 ( sciencedirect.com [accessed August 29, 2019]).
  2. ↑ a b c d Paul Westrich: The wild bees of Germany . E. Ulmer Verlag, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-8186-0123-2 , pp. 205-207, 660-665 .
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Erwin Scheuchl, Wolfgang Willner: Pocket dictionary of wild bees in Central Europe . 1st edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim 2016, ISBN 978-3-494-01653-5 .
  4. ^ Hannes F. Paulus: How insect males 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 ).
  5. ↑ Wildbiene.com. Retrieved August 29, 2019 .
  6. ↑ a b Ch. D. Michener: The Bees of the World . 2nd Edition. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 2007, ISBN 978-0-8018-8573-0 , pp. 74, 726-741 .
  7. ↑ Dorchin et al .: Phylogeny, new generic-level classification ... 2018, p. 90, tab. 3 .
  8. ↑ Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Felix Amiet: Bees: Central European genera, way of life, observation . Natur-Buch-Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 .
  9. ↑ Checklist of the Western Palaearctic Bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila). Retrieved August 29, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Felix Amiet: Apidae. 5, Ammobates, Ammobatoides, Anthophora, Biastes, Ceratina, Dasypoda, Epeoloides, Epeolus, Eucera, Macropis, Melecta, Melitta, Nomada, Pasites, Tetralonia, Thyreus, Xylocopa . Swiss Entomological Society, Neuchâtel 2007, ISBN 978-2-88414-032-4 .
  11. ↑ Eucera punctulata Alfken, 1942. In: Fauna Europaea. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ Video recording. In: youtube.com.