Big wooden bee
| Big wooden bee | ||||||||||||
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Large wooden bee ( Xylocopa violacea ), ♂ |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Xylocopa violacea | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The large blue wooden bee , also blue-black or violet-winged wooden bee ( Xylocopa violacea ), is a bee from the genus of wooden bees ( Xylocopa ) within the family of Apidae . Due to its heat requirement in combination with suitable nesting opportunities, the species is included in the Red List of Endangered Species in Germany on the warning list (Category V). In some federal states, as in Switzerland, it was classified as endangered and in some cases, such as in Baden-Württemberg , even as "very endangered". However, since the surveys of the Stuttgart wild bee cadastre, this categorization has proven to be unfounded.
features
With a body length of 20 to 28 millimeters, the animals are among the largest representatives of bees in Central Europe. Her body is jet black and has a bumblebee-like appearance, the otherwise blue-black thorax is gray on the back. The wings are also very dark and have a striking blue shimmer. The body is hairy relatively short. In Central Europe, the females cannot be distinguished from Xylocopa valga in the field . The similar males have a brown-red ring in front of the slightly bent tip of the antenna and can thus be easily identified. In southern Europe, the species can be confused with several similar species in the genus.
Occurrence
The species occurs in southern and central Europe up to heights of around 500 meters. In Central Europe, their occurrence seems to be restricted to habitats with less heat. The species occurs there often; otherwise it is rarely reported. In the Mediterranean area, the large wooden bee is one of the most common types of bees. It populates sunny habitats with enough crumbly dead wood as a nesting opportunity , especially gardens and orchards on the edge of human settlements. In Central Europe the species flies from August and after wintering from April to July.
Way of life
Mating takes place in spring, after both sexes have overwintered. As a hermit bee , each female starts creating her nest in April / May. These are gnawed into dead wood. The partitions between the brood cells consist of a mixture of saliva and wood chips. The females feed themselves and their developmental stages on the nectar and pollen of a wide range of different flowers such as mint family , daisy family , carnivorous family and butterflies . In spring this eye-catching bee is a regular visitor to the fragrant flower clusters of Chinese wisteria ( Wisteria sinensis ) and also to those of the Japanese sister species W. floribunda, which is similarly planted . Among the visitors to the flowers of both species, wooden bees are seen as the only "legitimate" ones because they get to the nectar from the front in the center line through weight and force and with their long enough proboscis and act as pollinators, i.e. not like other bees ( Bumblebees and honey bees) biting through the goblet at the back and grabbing nectar. The development time from the egg to the fully grown animal is around 10 weeks.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Blue wooden bee , ph-karlsruhe.de, accessed on August 17, 2013.
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 .
