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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Flower Potter Bees, Homeless Bees, Cuckoo Bees.
Adults small to large; (5–)6–16 mm long; very hairy; with branched or feathery hairs on the body. Solitary insects (although the independent burrows are often constructed side by side); the adult populations comprising males and fertile females only.
Head. Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). Antennae geniculate, or not geniculate. The labrum broader than long. Tongue longer than the prementum; pointed. Labial palps with segments 1 and 2 much longer than the distal two, and flattened.
Thorax. Thorax black, brown, reddish-brown, black-and-yellow or black-and grey. Pronotum more or less straight at the back; short, not extending back to the tegulae. Cenchri absent. Wings present. Fore-wings with a conspicuous pterostigma, or without a pterostigma (generally not very conspicuous); with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 2 (a few), or 3 (mostly). Discoidal cells 2. Hind-wings with closed cells. Hind femur without a well defined trochantellus. Hind tibiae with spurs specialised for a cleaning rôle. Hind basitarsi wider than the other segments.
Abdomen. The abdomen with a marked basal constriction; short-waisted. The ‘waist’ simple. Visible abdominal segments 6 (females), or 7 (males). The gaster concolorous (rarely), or colour-patterned; when concolorous, black or brown; when patterned, black-and yellow, black-and-grey, black-and-brown or reddish brown, black-and-orange, or black, yellow and orange. Ovipositor of females not visibly protruding; modified as a retractable sting.
Larvae. Larvae legless or the legs vestigial; socially parasitic on hosts selected by the mother and predacious (Nomada and Melecta, feeding on stored food, eggs and larvae in the cells of Andrenidae and other Anthophoridae, respectively), or feeding on material manufactured by the adults.
British representation. Species in Britain about 40; Anthophora, Epeolus, Eucera, Melecta, Nomada.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Apoidea.
Illustrations. • Melecta albifrons (Spotted Melecta: B. Ent. 125). • Melecta albifrons (detail: B. Ent. 125). • Melecta albifrons (dissections: B. Ent. 125). • Melecta albifrons: B. Ent. 125, legend+text. • Melecta albifrons: B. Ent. 125, text cont.. • Anthophora retusa (Haworthian Bee: B. Ent. 357). • Anthophora retusa (detail: B. Ent. 357). • Anthophora retusa (dissections: B. Ent. 357). • Anthophora retusa: B. Ent. 357, legend+text. • Anthophora retusa: B. Ent. 357, text cont.. • Epeolus variegatus (B. Ent. 516). • Epeolus variegatus: B. Ent. 516, legend+text. • Epeolus variegatus: B. Ent. 516, text cont.. • Nomada armata (Herr. Schaf.), as Nomada kirbyella Stephens. Stephens 1846. • Nomada sheppardana (Charmouth Wasp-bee: B. Ent. 419). • Nomada sheppardana (detail: B. Ent. 419). • Nomada sheppardana (dissections: B. Ent. 419). • Nomada sheppardana: B. Ent. 419, legend+text. • Nomada sheppardana: B. Ent. 419, text cont.. • Anthophora bimaculata (Two-spotted Saropoda: B. Ent. 361). • Anthophora bimaculata: B. Ent. 361, legend+text. • Anthophora bimaculata: B. Ent. 361, text cont.. • Nomada fucata, and Nomada rufipes (Saunders XXXVI). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 4,(female). 5, Nomada rufipes (female). 6, Nomada rufipes (female, var.). From Saunders (1896, Plate XXXVI). • 6 Nomada species (Saunders XXXVII). N. lathburiana (f). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1, Nomada sexfasciata (male). 2 and 4, Nomada goodeniana (females). 3, Nomada fulvicornis (male). 5, Nomada lathburiana (female). 6, Nomada baccata (female). 7–11, male genital armature and (a) 8th ventral segments: 7, N. sexfasciata; 8 and 9, N. goodeniana; 10, N. lathburiana; 11, N. baccata. From Saunders (1896, Plate XXXVII). • 5 Nomada species (Saunders XXXVIII). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1, Nomada xanthostica (female). 2 and 3, Nomada ruficornis: male (2) and female. 4, Nomada signata (female). 5, Nomada leucophthalma (female). 6, Nomada striata (male). 7–10, male genital armature and (a) 8th ventral segments: 7, N. xanthostica; 8 and 9, N. ruficornis; 10, N. striata. From Saunders (1896, Plate XXXVIII). • 7 Nomada species (Saunders XXXIX). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1, Nomada tormentillae (female). 2, Nomada obtusifrons (female). 3, Nomada armata (female). 4, Nomada pleurosticta (male). 5, Nomada fabriciana (female). 6, Nomada sheppardana (male). 7–12: male genital armature and (a) 8th ventral segments. 7, N. tormentillae; 8, N. obtusifrons; 9, N. pleurosticta; 10, N. fabriciana; 11, N. flavoguttata; 12, N. sheppardana. From Saunders (1896, Plate XXXIX). • Epeolus cruciger, E. variegatus (Saunders XL). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1 and 8, Epeolus cruciger: female and (8) male genital armature. 7, male genital armature of Epeolus variegatus. From Saunders (1896, Plate XL). • Anthophora and Melecta species, Eucera (Saunders XLV). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1 and 2: Eucera longicornis, male (1) and female. 3, Melecta albifrons (female). 4, Melecta luctuosa (female). 5 and 6: Anthophora furcata, male (5) and female). 7, genital armature of male Eucera longicornis. 8, genital armature of male Melecta albifrons. 9 and 10, Melecta luctuosa: 7th ventral segment of male (9), and genital armature of male. 11, 7th ventral segment of male Melecta albifrons. 12 and 13, Anthophora bimaculata: genital armature of male (12), and 7th ventral segment. From Saunders (1896). • 6 Anthophora species (Saunders XLXI). ANTHOPHORIDAE. 1 and 2: Anthophora retusa, male (1) and female. 3, Anthophora plumipes (male). 4, Anthophora quadrimaculata (female). 5 and 6: Anthophora (Saropoda) bimaculata, male (5) and female. 7–8: Anthophora retusa, genital armature of male and (8) the 7th ventral segment. 9 and 10, Anthophora plumipes: genital armature of male (9) and 7th ventral segment. 11 and 12, Anthophora quadrimaculata: genital armature of male and (12) 7th ventral segment. 13 and 14, Anthophora furcata: genital armature of male, and (14) 7th ventral segment. From Saunders (1896). • Nomada kirbyella Stephens: Stephens 1846.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
