Longhorn bees

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Longhorn bees
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)
Tribe : Longhorn bees
Scientific name
Eucerini
Latreille , 1802
Female of the longhorn bee Eucera longicornis on a wild pea

The long horn bees ( English Longhorn bees ) are a group of bees from the family Apidae , the tribe Eucerini . In Central Europe, the genus Eucera is one of them . In the German-language literature, the bees of the genera Tetralonia , Tetraloniella and Synhalonia are counted among the longhorn bees, some of which are or are now classified as sub-genera of Eucera .

features

The unusually long antennae of the males are striking and give their name, and they usually have a yellow head shield. The females have a broad abdomen with light-colored hair ties. The splint brush, which is used to collect pollen, has strong, light hair. The longhorn bees are similar in appearance to the fur bees .

Way of life

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 many species are polylectic; H. they collect pollen from plants of different families. They live solitary and nest in the ground, especially in areas with little vegetation. Sometimes the nests occur 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. Cuckoo bees that parasitize native longhorn bees are Nomada sexfasciata and N. nobilis , as well as the felt bee Triepeolus tristis and the cone bee Coelioxys polycentris .

In North and South America, many species of longhorn bees are major pollinators of the cucurbits. In the Middle East and the Mediterranean, they are important pollinators in areas where bumblebees are virtually absent.

Occurrence, biodiversity

The tribe Eucerini contains about 780 species and is distributed in almost all parts of the world, except Australia. A particularly large number of species can be found in the western hemisphere . The largest genus is Eucera with around 390 species. Many Eucera species are common in the steppe areas of Europe and Asia.

Systematics

The tribe Eucerini contains the following genera (approximate numbers of species in brackets):

According to the more recent study by Dorchin et al. (2018) the earlier genera Tetralonia , Peponapis, Xenoglossa, Cemolobus, and Syntrichalonia are placed as sub-genera of Eucera . Tetraoniella is a synonym of Tetralonia. The former genus Cubitalia is a synonym of Eucera.

The genus Eucera is divided into eight sub-genera: Tetralonia (approx. 100 species), Xenoglossa (approx. 40 species), Xenoglossodes, Cemolobu s (1), Xenoglossa (8), Peponapis (15), Syntrichalonia (2), Synhalonia ( 100), Eucera s. st. (130). Synhalonia should possibly be viewed as a genus in its own right.

Closest related to the large genus Eucera are the genera Simanthedon and Protohalonia , the latter of which has only recently been re-described and occurs with only three species in the southwestern United States.

The longhorn bees originated in the Nearctic Region in the late Oligocene and immigrated to the Old World twice.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h A. Dorchin, MM López-Uribe, CJ Praz, T. Griswold, BN Danforth: Phylogeny, new generic-level classification, and historical biogeography of the Eucera complex (Hymenoptera: Apidae) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 119 , 2018, ISSN  1095-9513 , p. 81-92 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2017.10.007 .
  2. ↑ a b c d P. Westrich: The wild bees of Germany . E. Ulmer Verl., 2018, ISBN 978-3-8186-0123-2 , pp. 205-207, 660-665 .
  3. ↑ Andreas Müller, Albert Krebs, Felix Amiet: Bees. Central European species, way of life, observation . Naturbuch Verl., 1996, ISBN 3-89440-241-5 , p. 210-214 .
  4. ↑ a b Wildbiene.com | The website about wild bee protection. Retrieved August 6, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Solitary bee species: Longhorn bees (Eucera & Tetralonia). Retrieved July 21, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Ch. D. Michener: Bees of the world . 2nd Edition. 2007, ISBN 978-0-8018-8573-0 , pp. 74, 707-741 .
  7. ↑ a b A. Dorchin et al .: A new genus of eucerine bees endemic to southwestern North America revealed in phylogenetic analyzes of the Eucera complex (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Eucerini) | Achik Dorchin. 2018, accessed on July 21, 2019 .