Short-horned bees
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Pasites maculatus |
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| Jurine , 1807 |
The short-horned bees ( Pasites ) are a genus of the Apidae family within the bees . They are cuckoo bees , i.e. breeding parasites.
In the genus 21 species are described, two of which occur in the Palearctic . 15 species occur in Africa south of the Sahara, three in Madagascar, one more in India, in the western Palearctic, including Europe, only one species is common, Pasites maculatus . This was previously reported from Austria and is currently widespread in Valais , Switzerland:. Earlier information was also given for Germany by mistake.
The German name "Kurzhornbienen" is also used for species of the genus Parammobatodes .
features
The short-horned bees are 2.5 to 12.5 mm long, they are, like all species of Ammobatini, mostly black in color with a red abdomen and very sparsely hairy. The males are distinguished by the fact that they have only 12 antennae (also applies to the very similar genera Melanempis and Parammobatodes ). In all other indigenous species of bees, the males have 13 and the females 12 antennae (with the exception of Biastes ). The wing veins offer further characteristics : The forewings have two cubital cells that are approximately the same size. As with the related genera, but generally unusual in bees, the labrum is long, depending on the species, as long as it is wide or considerably longer than it is wide, its apex is truncated or pointed. The shape of the mandibles is typical of the genus : When they are at rest, they cross at an obtuse angle. An extension on the sternite of the fifth abdominal segment, as pronounced in some related genera in females, is always missing in pasites .
Way of life
The Pasites species live as brood parasites in other bees of the genus Pseudapis and the closely related genus Nomia (family Halictidae ). The adult bees only visit flowers to supply themselves with nectar. The species flies in Central Europe in one generation in midsummer.
Systematics
The genre was interpreted differently by different authors. The beekeeper Klaus Warncke understood the whole of today's Ammobatini tribe as a single genus Pasites , today's genus is the sub-genus Pasites s. st. The species of the Afrotropis were previously placed in the genera Morgania Smith, 1854 and Omachthes Gerstaecker, 1869, these are now synonymous with Pasites . Some species previously assigned to Pasites were transferred to the new genus Chiasmognathus Engel, 2006.
Pasites is closely related to the genus Ammobates . Another closely related genus is Parammobatodes , which is partially understood as a subgenus of Pasites or is united with this genus. In Central Europe, only Parammobatodes minutus (in Lower Austria) and Parammobatodes schmidti (in Eastern Austria) occur. In North America, where the genus is absent, Oreopasites Cockerell, 1906, is another closely related genus.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Erwin Scheuchl & Willner, Wolfgang: Pocket dictionary of wild bees in Central Europe . 1st edition. Quelle & Meyer, Wiebelsheim, Hunsrück 2016, ISBN 978-3-494-01653-5 .
- ^ A b Paul Westrich: The wild bees of Germany . Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 3-8186-0123-2 , pp. 217, 699 .
- ^ Paul Westrich & Stefan Tischendorf (2018): About an alleged evidence of Pasites maculatus Jurine 1807 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Germany. Eucera 13 (2018): 3-11.
- ^ A b Charles D. Michener: The Bees of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2nd edition 2007. ISBN 978-0-8018-8573-0 . Pp. 661 and 663-664.
- ↑ Klaus Warncke (1983): On the knowledge of the bee genus Pasites Jurine, 1807, in the Western Palearctic (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Nomadinae). Entomofauna 4 (21): 261-347.
- ↑ Solitary bee species: Short-horned bees (Pasites / Parammobatodes). Retrieved January 22, 2020 .