Andrena scotica

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Andrena scotica
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Andrenidae
Genus: Andrena
Species:
A. scotica
Binomial name
Andrena scotica
Perkins, 1916
Synonyms
  • Andrena jacobi Perkins 1921

Andrena scotica, the chocolate mining bee or hawthorn bee, is a species of mining bee from the family

Andrena carantonica
.

Description

Andrena scotica females are similar in size to a

scopae are dark on distally and curly proximally.[1] They have a covering of fine brown to orange hairs, which is denser on the thorax, with face being the same colour.[2][1] There is a fine covering of shorter hairs on the abdomen and the hind tibia is dark.[1] Northern populations of A. scotica tend to be more extensively dark-haired than the southern populations. The smaller males have a wholly black abdomen too. There is an apical tooth on the mandibles but the cheeks normally lack a spine.[3] As well as being smaller than the females they are also comparatively slender.[4] A. scotica measures between 10 and 14 mm in length.[5]

male

Distribution

Andrena scotica is endemic to Europe where it is found in Ireland east to Poland and the Czech Republic, south to Italy and north to southern Scandinavia[6][7] and Finland.[8]

Habitat

Andrena scotica occurs in a wide variety of habitats, especially where there are firm sandy soils in open situations such as in the vicinity of footpaths.[5] Favoured habitats include parks, gardens and open woodland.[1]

Biology

Andrena scotica is one of the earlier bees to appear and the flight period is mid March to late June with numbers peaking late April and May. The females are facultative communal nesters with a group of them sharing a common entrance to a burrow in which each female tends her own eggs and larvae within a chamber off the main burrow, constructing brood cells within her tunnel and provisioning the cells with pollen and nectar collected from a wide range of flower species.

buttercups, roses and willows.[10] It is thought that the offspring complete their development in their brood cells in which they overwinter as fully developed adults before emerging in the following spring through nest entrance.[9] When the adults first emerge they meet each other in and around the burrows and the females are often mated before they can leave it.[1]

Meloe violaceus, the larvae are cleptoparasites on A. scotica

Females of the parasitic

bee fly Bombylius major and anthomyiid Leucophora personata. In addition, Myopa testacea, was also recorded as a parasite from sampled A. scotica. Other insects associated with the nests A. scotica include the cuckoo bee Nomada marshamella and the violet oil beetle (Meloe violaceus), the larvae of which attach themselves to foraging bees when they land on flowers and are transported by the bee into the cell where the consume the contents of the cell, including the eggs of the bee.[9]

Taxonomy

There is some controversy over the naming of Andrena scotica, it was known as Andrena carantonica. This name was applied by the Italian entomologist Perez to specimens he collected near Bordeaux and then applied to similar bees collected elsewhere. On investigation it was found that A. carontonica is not the same species as A. scotica as described by Perkins, but is more likely a synonym of Andrena trimmerana. Bordeaux falls outside of the known range of A. scotica and the specimen was taken too late in the summer for that species. A scotica and A. trimmerana are sympatric in England. DNA analysis has confirmed that there are two different types, with one being present in Germany and France and the other in northern England and Sweden.[10] Examination of the type of A. carantonica, has probably confirmed A. scotica as a separate species from A. carantonica which is almost certainly a junior synonym of A. trimmerana.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Andrena carantonica ". Nature Guide UK. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  2. ^ a b "Chocolate Mining Bee - Andrena scotica". Brickfields Country Park. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  3. ^ "Andrena scotica (Chocolate mining-bee)". Steven Falk. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  4. ^ "Andrena carantonica: The Chocolate Mining Bee". www.buzzaboutbees.net. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  5. ^ a b c "Andrena scotica (carantonica) - Andrena scotica". www.naturespot.org.uk. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  6. ^ "Taxonomy for Andrena (Hoplandrena) scotica (Perkins, 1917) (Chocolate Mining-Bee)". insectoid.info. Retrieved 9 July 2017.[permanent dead link]
  7. ^ "Storsandbie Andrena scotica Perkins, 1916". Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  8. ^ "Andrena". Finnish Biodiversity Information Facility. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  9. ^ a b c d Robert J. Paxton; Jan Tengö; Lars Hedström (1996). "Dipteran parasites and other associates of a communal bee, Andrena scotica (Hymenoptera: Apoidea), on Oland, SE Sweden" (PDF). Entomologisk Tidskrift. 117 (4): 165–178.
  10. ^ a b "Sand- bzw. Erdbienen: Andrena scotica / carantonica". wildbienen.de. Retrieved 9 July 2017.
  11. PMID 27226757
    .
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Andrena_scotica&oldid=1187834386"