Anthophora plumipes

Common fur bee ( Anthophora plumipes ), male

The common fur bee ( Anthophora plumipes ) is a solitary living species of bee.

Features

The common fur bee recalls in her hairy, compact appearance to small bumblebees, such as Acker bumblebees. It is about 15 mm. The females of the congregation fur bee come in three color variants. There are brown, gray and black copies. The males are generally gray in color and have a bright drawing of the front of the head. In addition, the males have the middle pair of legs, the characteristic, the eponymous long hair on the feet ( ~ plumipes spring foot ). The female has a rust-colored brush collection on the hind legs.

Way of life

The animals fly early in the year (March to June). You are polyektisch - that feed on many different species of plants. Especially popular are for example Deadnettles or lung herb.

The Commons fur bees fall on by their rapid flight behavior, which they already can distinguish a great distance from bumblebees with a little practice in the field.

The females build their brood cells like in steep walls of clay or loess. To aggregations may form with several hundred nests at suitable points. In the cell a slurry of nectar and pollen is introduced on the surface is mostly liquid and laid an egg. In a nest several brood cells can be created. The larvae develop in the summer to imagos, but then the rest until next spring in their brood cells.

Those who build walls of mud to offer these animals breeding opportunities and to be able to observe them better, has a good chance that the congregation fur bee settles down there.

Parasites

The animals are parasitized by the Commons grief bee. There is also the oil beetle Sitaris muralis which specializes in fur bees.

Taxonomy

In older plants, the species is under the name Anthophora acervorum (Linnaeus, 1758). Linnaeus' description of this kind in the Systema naturae, however, does not allow unambiguous assignment, possibly but refers to the Erdbauhummel (Bombus subterraneus ). A similar presumption was indeed already voiced by Kirby in 1802, but long time you followed the previous estimate of Fabricius that Apis acervorum called a furry bee. In the 1990s, the opinion prevailed, A. acervorum be treated as nomen dubium and use the next available name Anthophora plumipes for the most common native bee fur.

Gallery

Anthophora plumipes

Males to Gefingertem Corydalis