Megachilidae

Megachilidae
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous – Recent, 100–0Ma
Male carder bee, Anthidium manicatum
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family: Megachilidae
Subfamilies

Fideliinae
Megachilinae

The Megachilidae are a cosmopolitan family of (mostly) solitary bees whose pollen-carrying structure (called a scopa) is restricted to the ventral surface of the abdomen (rather than mostly or exclusively on the hind legs as in other bee families).

A leaf-cutter bee showing abdominal scopa
Leaves showing cuts by a leafcutter bee

Megachilid genera are most commonly known as mason bees and leafcutter bees, reflecting the materials from which they build their nest cells (soil or leaves, respectively); a few collect plant or animal hairs and fibers, and are called carder bees. All species feed on nectar and pollen, but a few are cleptoparasites (informally called "cuckoo bees"), feeding on pollen collected by other megachilid bees. Parasitic species do not possess scopae. Megachilid bees are among the world's most efficient pollinators because of their energetic swimming-like motion in the reproductive structures of flowers, which moves pollen, as needed for pollination. One of the reasons they are efficient pollinators is their frequency of visits to plants, but this is because they are extremely inefficient at gathering pollen; compared to all other bee families, megachilids require on average nearly 10 times as many trips to flowers to gather sufficient resources to provision a single brood cell.

North America has many native megachilid species, but alfalfa leafcutter bees (Megachile rotundata) are an imported species used for pollination. The most significant native species is Osmia lignaria (the orchard mason bee or blue orchard bee), which is sold commercially for use in orchard crop pollination, and which can be attracted to nest in wooden blocks with holes drilled in them (which are also sold commercially for this purpose).

Lifecycle

Nonparasitic species

The general lifecycle of nonparasitic Megachilidae generally is:

Life cycle

Variations:

Parasitic species

Some genera of megachilids are brood parasites, so have no ventral scopa (e.g. Stelis and Coelioxys). They often parasitize related taxa. They typically enter the nest before it is sealed and lay their eggs in a cell. After hatching, the parasite larva kills the host larva, unless the female parasite has already done so, and then consumes the provisions. Parasitic species are of equal size or smaller than their victims. In 1921, journal American Museum Novitates published a preliminary report on parasitic megachilid bees of the western United States.[1]

Systematics

Carder bee (Anthidium manicatum), female
Male Haetosmia vechti, foraging on Heliotropium in Mevo Horon, West Bank
Coelioxys acanthura, female
Osmia ribifloris
Male Anthidium florentinum visiting Lantana

Main article: Megachilinae

References

  1. ↑ Cockerell, Theodore; Lutz, Frank Eugene (1 December 1921). "Some parasitic megachilid bees of the western United States" (PDF). American Museum Novitates 21. Retrieved 5 October 2014.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Megachilidae.