Melitta nigricans
| Melitta nigricans | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melitta nigricans |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Melitta nigricans | ||||||||||||
| Alfken , 1905 |
Melitta nigricans is a bee from the family of Melittidae .
features
The bees have a body length of 11 to 12 millimeters (females) or 10 to 11 millimeters (males). The females are hairy white, the vertex, the mesonotum , the scutellum , and the tergites two to four are hairy black. These tergites wear narrow hair ties that only cover the back half of the rear edge. The heel phalanx (metatarsus) of the hind legs has yellow-red hair on the inside. The claws are reddish on all legs, the splint brush (Scopa) is white. The males have white hairs, black on the back of the thorax and the third and fourth tergites. The second to fourth tergite has hair ties like the female, but slightly protruding from the end edge. The thighs ( femora ) of the hind legs are hairy at the bottom only half as long as at the top. The claw links are light reddish.
Occurrence and way of life
The species is distributed in southern and central Europe, east to the Urals. They colonize floodplains, wet meadows and ditches. Pollen is only collected from common purple loosestrife ( Lythrum salicaria ). The animals fly from mid-July to late August. It is not known which cuckoo bees parasitize the species .
supporting documents
Felix Amiet, M. Herrmann, A. Müller, R. Neumeyer: Fauna Helvetica 20: Apidae 5 . Center Suisse de Cartographie de la Faune, 2007, ISBN 978-2-88414-032-4 .
