Steppe bees
| Steppe bees | ||||||||||||
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Nomioides chalybeatus female |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Nomioides | ||||||||||||
| Schenck , 1867 |
The steppe bees ( Nomioides ) are a genus of bees within the Halictidae family . The genus is distributed over large parts of the Old World, in desert areas of Asia and North Africa. A total of 62 species are known, 45 species are common in the Palearctic and only one, N.minutissimus , in Germany and Austria.
A second, closely related genus is also called steppe bees in English , the genus Ceylalictus . One species from this genus, the colorful steppe bee Ceylalictus variegatus , has been reported from Austria. Some authors include the genus Ceylalictus and thus also the colorful steppe bee to the genus Nomioides .
features
The steppe bees are very small bees (2.5 to 5 mm, maximum 6.5 mm), whose head and thorax are mostly colored metallic green and more or less yellow. The abdomen is partly shiny metallic and has yellow stripes. In females it is mostly yellow in color. There are no hair ties on the tergites. The hair overall is relatively sparse except for the collecting hair on the hind leg.
The scientific name is misleading because steppe bees ( Nomioides ) are very different from Nomia ( rail bees ) .
Way of life
The steppe bees live solitary and collect pollen from various plants. They build nests in the ground, side passages branch off from a main passage, at the end of which a brood cell is placed. When the brood cell is filled with pollen and the egg is placed in it, the side passage is filled with soil.
Systematics
The steppe bees are part of the subfamily Nomioidinae, which contains three genera: Cellariella (two species, South Africa and Madagascar), Ceylalictus (26 species, Africa, southern Europe and Asia) and the genus Nomioides . Some authors consider Ceylalictus to be a subgenus (or synonym) of Nomioides.
The genus Nomioides consists mainly of the nominate subgenus, Nomioides (Nomioides), a species from Iran ( N. steinbergi ) was placed in its own subgenus, as was the species N. socotranus from Socotra (island on the Horn of Africa).
Types (examples)
Especially after (see there for more information); the listed species all belong to the subgenus Nomioides .
- Nomioides chalybeatus , Greece, Turkey, Asia
- Nomioides deceptor , North Africa, Arabian Peninsula
- Nomioides facilis , Southern Europe, North Africa, Middle East
- Nomioides fortunatus , Morocco, Canary Islands
- Nomioides klausi , North and Central Africa, Iran
- Nomioides maculiventris , South Africa
- Nomioides micheneri , Central Africa
- Nomioides minutissimus , Europe, North Africa, Asia
- Nomioides rotundiceps , northern Africa and central Africa, Middle East
- Nomioides squamiger , North Africa, Israel, Arabian Peninsula
- Nomioides turanicus , northern Africa, central Africa, Asia to Pakistan and Kyrgyzstan
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Ch. D. Michener: The Bees of the world . 2nd Edition. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-8573-0 , pp. 345 ff .
- ↑ a b c E. Scheuchl & W. Willner: Pocket dictionary of the wild bees of Central Europe. All types in portrait . Quelle & Meyer, 2016, ISBN 978-3-494-01653-5 , pp. 725 ff .
- ↑ a b Species of solitary bees: Steppe bees (Nomioides). Retrieved March 24, 2020 .
- ↑ a b c P. Westrich: The wild bees of Germany . Ulmer Verl., Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-8186-0123-2 , pp. 520 .
- ↑ a b Y. A. Pesenko & A. Pauly: Monograph of the bees of the subfamily Nomioidinae (Hymenoptera: Halictidae) f Africa (excluding Madagascar) . In: Ann. soc. entomol. Fr. (ns) . tape 41 , no. 2 , 2005, p. 129-236 ( atlashymenoptera.net [PDF]).
- ^ Atlas Hymenoptera. Retrieved March 24, 2020 .