Biologies of African allodapine bees (Hymenoptera, Xylocopinae). Bulletin of the AMNH ; v. 145, article 3
Supplemental Materials
Date
1971
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Publisher
New York : [American Museum of Natural History]
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Abstract
"A few allodapine bees (genus Halterapis) mass provision their nests, but most feed their larvae progressively. The structure and behavior of larvae and pupae enables them to maintain their positions in the hollow stems in which they live. In common genera such as Braunsapis and Allodape, the arrangement is from youngest below to oldest above. Each larva in these genera is fed by means of provisions placed on its venter by adult bees. In the genus Allodapula, however, larvae are together in a clump instead of one above another and feed from a common food mass. Such matters as positions of eggs, larvae, and pupae, and ways in which larvae are fed, are summarized in the preliminary account of each genus and in the section entitled Allodapine Biology. In the Conclusions are found comments on which of the physiological or behavior characteristics are ancestral and which derived. Social behavior of allodapines is treated both in the Species Accounts and the section on Allodapine Biology. The allodapines are noteworthy for the small sizes of the populations of adults in their colonies and the failure of many nests, even of the more social species, to acquire workers at all. They range from simple subsocial species in which each nest normally contains only a single bee and additional mature adult females are rare and seem almost accidental, to those in which nearly 40 per cent of the nests contain two or more mature adult females. Even in the small and facultative groups of adult females, weak polymorphism arises. This is shown behaviorally in that certain females (workers) do most of the foraging, others (queens) do little foraging when workers are present. The workers often do not mate. Many workers, unlike queens, do not experience much ovarian development, although others do and probably lay some eggs. There is meager evidence that workers are short lived compared to queens. In some species the mean size of workers is less than that of queens. In all these features (except, of course, mating) intermediacy is common and many bees can be placed as to caste only arbitrarily. In an Appendix preliminary descriptions are given for eleven new species falling in the genera Allodape, Braunsapis, Allodapula, and Exoneurula in order to validate names for forms on which biological information is presented"--P. 294.
Description
p. 221-301 : ill. ; 27 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-301).
Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-301).
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