Common silk bee

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Common silk bee
Common silk bee (Colletes daviesanus)

Common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus )

Systematics
Order : Hymenoptera (Hymenoptera)
Superfamily : Apoidea
without rank: Bees (Apiformes)
Family : Colletidae
Genre : Silk bees ( colletes )
Type : Common silk bee
Scientific name
Colletes daviesanus
Smith , 1846
Macro shot of the head
Detail from the eye

The common silk bee ( Colletes daviesanus ) is a bee from the Colletidae family .

features

The bees reach a body length of 7 to 9 millimeters. The thorax and the head are hairy red-brown, the abdomen is black and has a dense, light-gray felt band on the back of each segment, which extends over almost the entire back half of the respective segments. The end of the abdomen tapers to a point. The species cannot be distinguished from some other species of silk bees with the naked eye on the basis of external characteristics .

Occurrence

The species occurs in Europe, north to Sweden and Finland . It occurs frequently and almost everywhere in Central Europe, but prefers to settle on sunny, sandy or loamy steep slopes, such as those found in sand pits, on quarry ponds or sunken paths, but it also occurs regularly in human settlements. The species is one of the most common silk bee species in Central Europe and is not endangered. The flight time is from June to August.

Way of life

The females build their nests in well-compacted clay and sand walls and do not shy away from solid materials, such as clay joints in old buildings. With numerous occurrences in the mortar of brick buildings, they can damage the walls of the house. The nests have a diameter of about five millimeters, run almost horizontally and often branch forked to right-angled. Hundreds or even thousands of animals regularly lay their nests close to one another. The brood is supplied with a dry mixture of pollen and nectar without exception from sunflower , especially tansy ( Tanacetum vulgare ) and common yarrow ( Achillea millefolium ) ( oligolecty ). The inside of the individual cells, of which up to 10 are created per nest, are made from a silky, shimmering, cellophane-like mass, as is the closure of the nest entrance. The animals overwinter as larvae in the cocoon , pupation does not take place until the following spring. The nests are regularly used again by the new generation. The species is parasitized by the cuckoo bee Epeolus variegatus .

supporting documents

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Heiko Bellmann : Bees, wasps, ants. Hymenoptera of Central Europe . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-440-09690-4 .
  2. ^ A b c Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Felix Amiet: Bees. Central European species, way of life, observation. Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 .
  3. ↑ Udo Sellenschlo: Storage pests and domestic pests: Identification tables for Central Europe, p. 109 [1]

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

Commons : Common silk bee  - album with pictures, videos and audio files