Euglossa hyacinthina

Euglossa hyacinthina
A female Euglossa hyacinthina shaping resin along the rim of the growing nest envelope
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Subfamily:	Apinae
Tribe:	Euglossini
Genus:	Euglossa
Species:	E. hyacinthina
Binomial name
Euglossa hyacinthina

Euglossa hyacinthine is a species of orchid bee (Euglossid).^[1]

Distribution

This species is native to Central America.^[2]

Behavior

A female Euglossa hyacinthina working on the construction of her nest envelope.

Graphical representation of work effort showing how the bee moves from one side of the nest to another while constructing the envelope. Each arc represents the area the bee worked in a given work session, each lasting approximately from 1 to 2 min. The concentric arcs represent 13 sequential work bouts during a 26 min session of construction; the outer-most arc is the starting position at the beginning of the session and the inner-most one is the ending position.

Euglossa hyacinthina constructs aerial out of resin. These nests attached to the side of secondary-growth stems of tall plants. Before 2012, the structure of these nests had been described, but the actual nesting behavior had never been studied. In 2012, a team of scientists documented this behavior for the first time. Video recordings of the bees constructing their nests were made using a GoPro HD camera mounted about 25 cm from the nest. The video is to the left of this paragraph.^[3]

References