| Lasioglossum sordidum | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Halictidae |
| Tribe: | Halictini |
| Genus: | Lasioglossum |
| Species: | L. sordidum |
| Binomial name | |
| Lasioglossum sordidum (Smith, 1853) | |
Lasioglossum sordidum, also referred to as the small native bee, is one of the smallest native bees found in New Zealand.
These bees are around 5 mm long, with relatively large wings for their body size. Most of the body is covered with hair. Their appearance is described as fly-like, [1] and small and agile. [2] They have short tongues, but this does not restrict their ability to gather pollen. [3] Females have wider abdomens than the males. They appear very similar in colour and shape to a honey bee, however, the small native bee is not as stout. Lasioglossum sordidum often get mistaken for flies or go completely unnoticed as they look like small flies. [4]
Lasioglossum sordidum is endemic to New Zealand.
Lasioglossum sordidum is found all over New Zealand. It is one of the most abundant ground-nesting bees. [5] [1] The east coast South Island of New Zealand has the most adult numbers of all the native bees. [1] There are known to be Lasioglosssum sordidum in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, this is due to the great variation of woody and herbaceous plants, with a mixture of exotic ad native plants.
The small native bee nests on the ground, with the nest being constructed of many branching tunnels going down to 400mm below the surface in fine grained soils. [1] [5] [6] Within a few square meters of bare soil, there can be up to hundreds of females nesting. They have been observed to travel rather large distances from their nests to forage for pollen. [7] Lasioglossum sordidum females are classed as solitary but many forage within the same nest and with many generations active at any given time, this suggests some limited social organization. [8] [1]
Overwinter females that have been fertilized stay in nests, coming out in late winter as the ground begins to get warmer. During the winter prepupae are in moist soils to survive the cold temperatures, In late spring and early summer new males and females begin to appear, being active during the warmer months. They are unlikely to live longer than eight weeks. [8] Due to the lengthy time they spend nesting they forage on a wide range of flowering plants. Lasioglossum sordidum are described to have a eusocial life cycle [9] with a mix of juveniles and adults. Eusociality is used by all bees as a system to raise young. There is limited social organization shown within the behaviours of the bee as they are usually solitary, however females forage from one nest. [4]
Lasioglossum sordidum forage over large distances, on both native and introduced plant species, they have been observed to feed on Discaria toumatou flowers. [7] [10] Introduced legumes and composites are favored by the females. Because of the length of time that they nest they have a large foraging distance. These bees will visit anything that has colours yellow and orange, and will visit flowers in a wide range of flowering plants. Members of the family Asteraceae are reported to be foraged on by Lasioglossum sordidum. [4] [11] they are also reported to forage on Hebe (plant). [10] [4] [11] Females have been identified visiting 139 species in 56 families, they have the ability to forage on almost any plant that is flowering, if they can get nectar or pollen from it. Lasioglossum sordidum are polylactic which means that they can collect the pollen from many plants that are usually unrelated [4]
Lasioglossum sordidum were found to visit Kiwifruit flowers, and to carry over half a million male pollen grains, this is around the same as a bumble bee. [12]
They are nicknamed sweat bees as human perspiration attracts them. [4]
Within the species of lasioglossum, some bees are classed as Kleptoparasites (kleptoparasitism) this is a form of parasitism where the female kills the egg or larva in the cell and then lays her egg in the cell and the egg then eats the food stored by the host. [9]
Native bees, such as the Lasioglossum sordidum are necessary for pollination of many native plants [13] [4]
New Zealand lacked any pollinators with long tongues, but still had many indigenous nectar and pollen-feeding species, of those one being Lasioglossum sordidum. [8] [4] [14]
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. There are over 20,000 known species of bees in seven recognized biological families. Some species – including honey bees, bumblebees, and stingless bees – live socially in colonies while most species (>90%) – including mason bees, carpenter bees, leafcutter bees, and sweat bees – are solitary.
A bumblebee is any of over 250 species in the genus Bombus, part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related genera are known from fossils. They are found primarily in higher altitudes or latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere, although they are also found in South America, where a few lowland tropical species have been identified. European bumblebees have also been introduced to New Zealand and Tasmania. Female bumblebees can sting repeatedly, but generally ignore humans and other animals.
Megachile rotundata, the alfalfa leafcutting bee, is a European bee that has been introduced to various regions around the world. As a solitary bee species, it does not build colonies or store honey, but is a very efficient pollinator of alfalfa, carrots, other vegetables, and some fruits. Because of this, farmers often use M. rotundata as a pollination aid by distributing M. rotundata prepupae around their crops. Each female constructs and provisions her own nest, which is built in old trees or log tunnels. Being a leafcutter bee, these nests are lined with cut leaves. These bees feed on pollen and nectar and display sexual dimorphism. This species has been known to bite and sting, but it poses no overall danger unless it is threatened or harmed, and its sting has been described as half as painful as a honey bee's.
Halictidae is the second-largest family of bees with nearly 4,500 species. They are commonly called sweat bees, as they are often attracted to perspiration. Halictid species are an extremely diverse group that can vary greatly in appearance. These bees occur all over the world and are found on every continent except Antarctica. Usually dark-colored and often metallic, halictids are found in various sizes, colors and patterns. Several species are all or partly green and a few are red, purple, or blue. A number of them have yellow markings, especially the males, which commonly have yellow faces, a pattern widespread among the various families of bees. The family is one of many with short tongues and is best distinguished by the arcuate basal vein found on the wing. Females in this family tend to be larger than the males.
Mason bee is a name now commonly used for species of bees in the genus Osmia, of the family Megachilidae. Mason bees are named for their habit of using mud or other "masonry" products in constructing their nests, which are made in naturally occurring gaps such as between cracks in stones or other small dark cavities. When available, some species preferentially use hollow stems or holes in wood made by wood-boring insects.
Habropoda laboriosa, the southeastern blueberry bee, is a bee in the family Apidae. It is native to the eastern United States. It is regarded as the most efficient pollinator of southern rabbiteye blueberries, because the flowers require buzz pollination, and H. laboriosa is one of the few bees that exhibit this behavior. It is active for only a few weeks of the year, while the blueberries are in flower during early spring, when the temperature is warm and humid. H. laboriosa are solitary bees that live alone but nest in close proximity with other nests of their species. They have similar features to bumble bees, but they are smaller in size compared to them. H. laboriosa are arthropods so they have segmented bodies that are composed of the head, thorax, and abdomen.
Lasioglossum malachurum, the sharp-collared furrow bee, is a small European halictid bee. This species is obligately eusocial, with queens and workers, though the differences between the castes are not nearly as extreme as in honey bees. Early taxonomists mistakenly assigned the worker females to a different species from the queens. They are small, shiny, mostly black bees with off-white hair bands at the bases of the abdominal segments. L. malachurum is one of the more extensively studied species in the genus Lasioglossum, also known as sweat bees. Researchers have discovered that the eusocial behavior in colonies of L. malachurum varies significantly dependent upon the region of Europe in which each colony is located.
Anthidium manicatum, commonly called the European wool carder bee, is a species of bee in the family Megachilidae, the leaf-cutter bees or mason bees.
Within the insect order Hymenoptera, the Halictinae are the largest, most diverse, and most recently diverged of the four halictid subfamilies. They comprise over 2400 bee species belonging to the five taxonomic tribes Augochlorini, Thrinchostomini, Caenohalictini, Sphecodini, and Halictini, which some entomologists alternatively organize into the two tribes Augochlorini and Halictini.
Lasioglossum zephyrus is a sweat bee of the family Halictidae, found in the U.S. and Canada. It appears in the literature primarily under the misspelling "zephyrum". It is considered a primitively eusocial bee, although it may be facultatively solitary. The species nests in burrows in the soil.
Eucera is a genus of bees in the family Apidae, which comprises more than 100 species. These bees are commonly known as long-horned bees due to their characteristically long antennae, especially in males. Eucera species can be found in diverse habitats, including meadows, fields, and urban gardens, primarily in the Palearctic and Nearctic regions, covering parts of Europe, Asia, North Africa, and North America.
Halictus ligatus is a species of sweat bee from the family Halictidae, among the species that mine or burrow into the ground to create their nests. H. ligatus, like Lasioglossum zephyrus, is a primitively eusocial bee species, in which aggression is one of the most influential behaviors for establishing hierarchy within the colony, and H. ligatus exhibits both reproductive division of labor and overlapping generations.
Ptilothrix is a genus within the tribe Emphorini of the family Apidae. Bees of this genus can range from 7 to 15 mm. Ptilothrix species are solitary, ground-nesting bees. These bees have especially prominent hairs in the scopae of their hind legs, to help gather pollen to provision their nests. Ptilothrix species specialize on certain families of plants for their pollen, including the families Malvaceae, Convolvulaceae, Onagraceae, Cactaceae, Pontederiaceae, and Asteraceae. The genus is found in the New World, with species ranging across the Americas.
Lasioglossum cressonii is a species in the sweat bee genus Lasioglossum, family Halictidae. Halictidae exhibit eusocial hierarchy behavior which is interesting given that eusociality in this group is hard to evolve and easy to lose. L. cressonii is found throughout North America. L. cressonii have been shown to be important pollinators for apple trees and many other North American native plants.
Lasioglossum vierecki, also known as Dialictus vierecki and Halictus vierecki, is a sand sweat bee and is part of the family Halictidae of the order Hymenoptera. It is found in the eastern half of North America from Minnesota to the New England States down to Georgia and Louisiana and up in Manitoba and Ontario. Commonly found in sandy areas, it pollinates various flowers such as grass-leaved goldenrod and rattlesnake master.
Hylaeus agilis is a bee species in the family Colletidae. It is endemic to New Zealand. This species is found throughout the country and visits the flowers of a wide variety of plant species, both native and introduced.
Colletes validus, colloquially known as the blueberry cellophane bee, is a solitary, specialist bee in the family Colletidae. It is found primarily in eastern North America where it nests in sandy soils near ericaceous plants.
Lasioglossum mataroa is a bee species that is found in New Zealand.
Leioproctus boltoni is a species of bee in the family of plasterer bees. This species was first described in 1904 and is endemic to New Zealand. They are a solitary bee, small and black in appearance. L. boltoni can be found throughout the main islands of New Zealand and forages on the flowers of both native and introduced species of plants. This species nests in the soil with their life cycle lasting approximately a year.
Leioproctus huakiwi is a species of bee in the family Colletidae family. This species was first described in 2007 and is endemic to New Zealand. L. huakiwi is a solitary bee, small and mainly black in appearance. It nests in the ground in bare, dry and fine soil. This species has been the subject of a successful translocation in Canterbury in 2005.