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Colletidae (= Hylaeidae) (Apoidea) -- <Images> & <Juveniles> Description
& Statistics
Colletidae. -- The
Plasterer bees and Yellow-faced bees are a primitive group with short tongues
that are either bilobed at the tip or truncate.Colletidae are a small family
of primitive bees that make their nests in plant stems, in burrows in the
soil, or in other holes and crevices.
Several species of the principal genus Hylaeus (= Prosopis)
have been studied in Hawaii by Perkins (1919), who found them to live at the
expense of other bees in the family, although the exact relationships were
not determined (Clausen 1940/62). Finnamore & Michener (1993)
noted that in this family the glossa is widely truncated or bilobed except
pointed in males of Australian genera Hemirhiza,
Meroglossa and Palaeorhiza (Michener & Brooks 1984). The glossa has a transverse preapical
fringe on the anterior (dorsal) surface separating the transversely annulate
area from the apical hairy lobes. The
preepisternal groove is usually present and extending well below the scrobal
groove. North American species lack
basitibial and pygidial plates except for the rare southern Diphaglossinae
and Eulonchopria in Colletinae. The wide, truncate or bilobed
glossa of this family is suggestive of wasps, but this is a derived feature
rather than a plesiomorphic trait retained from Speciformes. It is used by colletids to apply the
cellophane-like coating of the cells in which young develop. This waterproof coating holds the liquid
(nectar and pollen) provisions provided for larval food by many colletids. The family contains ca. 2,000
species worldwide. About 150 species
occur in North America (45 in Canada).
There are 5 subfamilies:
Colletinae, Hylaeinae, Diphaglossinae, Xeromelissinae and
Euryglossinae. The Hylaeinae is found
worldwide but is most abundant and diverse in Australia. It is represented in North America by Hylaeus, which contains small,
slender, black (in the Western Hemisphere) species with 2 submarginal cells
(perhaps 1R1+1Rs and 2Rs), usually with yellow markings at least on the
face. The body is only sparsely hairy
and because the female lacks a pollen-carrying scopa, pollen is carried to
the nest along with nectar in the crop.
Most species nest in dead hollow or pithy stems. The Colletinae occur around the world but
are diverse only in the southern continents.
It is represented in North America mainly by Colletes. This genus
contains hairy bees, without yellow markings, and with three submarginal
cells (1R1, 1Rs, 2Rs). The body shape
suggests that of Andrena or Halictus; the strongly convergent eyes
and rather heart-shaped face usually distinguish Colletes from superficially similar bees in Halictidae,
Andrenidae, and Melittidae. Also Colletes, the only colletine genus
north of Mexico and southern Arizona, differs from all other bees in having
the posterior half of the fore wing being 2m-cu distinctly arcuate toward the
wing margin. Females carry pollen
externally, on the well-developed scopa of the hind legs (trochanter to
tibia). Nests are in burrows in the
ground. In southern North America and
further south large hairy bees of the subfamily Diphaglossinae occur. North American species are in the genera Caupolicana and Ptiloglossa. In Latin
America small Hylaeus-like bees of
subfamily Xeromelissinae are also found.
They have a small scopa on the hind legs and basal metasomal sterna
for external pollen transport. One
genus, Chilicola, ranges to central
Mexico. Euryglossinae is endemic in
Australia. Species resemble Hylaeinae
but usually have a wide face and the clypeus does not extend far above the
level of the tentorial pits (Finnamore & Michener 1993). Key references are Hurd (1970),
Michener (1986a), Snelling (1985), Houston (1975, 1981), Dathe (1980),
Warncke (1978), McGinley (1981),
Ikudome (1989) = = = = = = = = = = = = = References: Please refer to <biology.ref.htm>, [Additional references
may be found at: MELVYL
Library] Clausen, C. P. 1940. Entomophagous
Insects. McGraw-Hill Book Co., NY.
& London. 688 p. Danforth,
B.N., Sipes, S., Fang, J., Brady, S.G.
2006. The history of early bee
diversification based on five genes plus morphology. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences 103: 15118-15123. Michener, D.
C.. 2000. The Bees of the World, Johns
Hopkins University Press. Perkins, R. C. L.
1919. The British species of Andrena and other Nomada. Trans. Ent. Soc. London (1919): 218-317. |