Aglae

Aglae
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Aglae
Lepeletier & Serville, 1825
Species: A. caerulea
Binomial name
Aglae caerulea
Lepeletier & Serville, 1825

Aglae is a genus of euglossine bees, with the only described species Aglae caerulea. Like all orchid bees, it is restricted to the Neotropics.

They are metallic blue.

This species, like the genus Exaerete, is a nest parasite on free-living Euglossini. A. caerulea lays its eggs in the nests of Eulaema nigrita, and possibly other Eulaema species.

Among other substances, males of this species are attracted by methyl cinnamate baits.

Name

The Ancient Greek Αγλαιη means "beauty".

Distribution

A. caerulea was thought to occur only in the Amazon basin, in the rainforests of northern Bolivia, western Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Venezuela, Suriname and Panama. However, the record from Panama is doubtful. Recent studies have extended the range by about 2,400 km southwards, when specimens were found in the National Park Chapada dos Guimarães, Mato Grosso, Brazil.[1]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ dos Anjos-Silva et al. 2006

References

Further reading


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.