Cup collector
| Cup collector | ||||||||||||
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Honeybees with pollen pants or full cups |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| corbiculate bees | ||||||||||||
The cup collectors or corbiculate n bees are a family group (a taxon ) within the subfamily Apinae of the "real bees" (family Apidae). The basket collectors are the economically, culturally and historically most important group of bees. All bee species that supply honey belong to the cup collectors.
The outstanding feature of the cup collectors is a row of stiff, long hairs on the edge of the posterior tibia, which together with a smooth area of the tibia results in the cup (scientific name: corbicula), a device for collecting pollen . Corbiculae on the tibia occur only in another group of bees, well developed only in the species Canephorula apiformis , tribe Eucerini. However, these do not stick together the collected pollen, but collect dry, loose pollen. All other pollen-collecting bees have evolved other foraging devices.
Species from all groups of corbiculate bees, with the exception of bumblebees , also use the basket to collect resins , which are often used to build nests .
The corbiculate bees include most of the more highly developed eusocial bees with advanced box differentiation , the honey bees and the stingless bees . The bumblebees and some beautiful bees are also eusocial, but with more simply structured colonies. There are also solitary species among the magnificent bees .
Phylogeny
The group's taxonomy has been shaped by several changing views. In the traditional view, which was held until the 1980s, the species summarized here formed the family Apidae. Later research showed that this had to be assigned to numerous other, mostly solitary, groups, so that their togetherness appeared questionable. More recent studies, from around 2010, again provided clear arguments in favor of monophyly in the group. A study from 2014 provides arguments for the sister group relationship of the corbiculate bees: According to this, two bee genera ( Centris and Epicharis ) are closely related , which stick the collected pollen not with nectar, but with vegetable oils that are collected from the glands.
According to current knowledge (as of 2014), the corbiculate bees comprise approx. 890 species in the following groups:
- Tribus Apini with the only genus Apis ( honey bees )
- Tribus Bombini with the only genus Bombus ( bumblebees )
- Tribus Meliponini, stingless bees , approx. 450 species
- Tribe Euglossini, magnificent bees , 187 species.
Individual evidence
- ^ Charles D. Michener (1999): The corbiculae of bees. Apidology 30 (1): 67-74.
- ↑ Sarah D. Kocher & Robert J. Paxton (2014): Comparative methods offer powerful insights into social evolution in bees. Apidology 45 (3): 289-305. doi : 10.1007 / s13592-014-0268-3
- ↑ Aline C. Martins, Gabriel AR Melo, Susanne S. Renner (2014): The corbiculate bees arose from New World oil-collecting bees: Implications for the origin of pollen baskets. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 80: 88-94. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2014.07.003
Web links
- Stingless bee in Australia (English)