Heath leafcutter bee
| Heath leafcutter bee | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Heath leafcutter bee ( Megachile ericetorum ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Megachile ericetorum | ||||||||||||
| ( Lepeletier , 1841) |
The heather leaf cutter bee ( Megachile ericetorum , syn .: Chalicodoma ericetorum ), also called the heather mortar bee, is a species from the genus Megachile ( leaf cutter and mortar bees ) from the order of the hymenoptera .
features
The females are 12 to 14 mm long. The wide bandages of the tergites are striking . The body is hairy yellow-brown. The upper jaw is characterized by a long straight tooth edge. The males reach a body length between 10 and 13 mm. On the 6th tergite they have a long toothed ridge cut deep in the middle.
distribution
The distribution area extends from North Africa across Europe to Central Finland and across the Middle East to Central Asia . The bee prefers dry, warm slopes with edges and embankments, also sand pits and dunes . As a cultural follower, it can be found in parks and gardens.
Way of life
The heather leaf cutter bee lives solitary like the other leaf cutter bee species. The flight time starts in June and ends in August. Be Flew the flowers of leguminous plants such as laburnum , grass pea , birdsfoot trefoil , ononis , sweet peas , lavender , horehound , sage , Stachys , snake heads , violets and others.
The nest tubes are created in clay walls, embankments or demolition edges. Tubes made by fur bees ( Anthophora ) are preferred . Wall joints, reed stalks or cavities in wooden posts are also used for the brood . The walls of the brood cells are built from sand or clay mortar. To some extent, the resin used to solidify.
Parasites
The cone bee Coelioxys aurolimbata uses the brood cells of the heather leafcutter bee for its brood parasitism .
literature
- Manfred Dorn, Dieter Weber: The alfalfa leaf cutter bee and its relatives in Central Europe. Megachile rotundata a. a. In: The New Brehm Library . Volume 582, Ziemsen, Lutherstadt Wittenberg 1988, ISBN 3-7403-0047-7 , pp. 83-84.