Nomada
Red wasp bee ( Nomada armata )
The wasps bees ( Nomada ) are a genus of the family Apidae within the bees. Of these, 202 species in Europe are found in Central Europe there are 87 have your German name the animals because of the resemblance to wasps. Honey bees are breeding parasites and are therefore counted as cuckoo bees, under which they are the largest group by far.
Features
The bees reach a body length of 3 to 14 mm. They are recognizable by their black and yellow, black and red or black-red- yellow banding, lack of or only weak pubescence and the greatly elongated and widened first Tarsenglied on the hind legs, at first glance, but they can also be due to her wasp waist with grave or wasps and partly with blood bees ( Sphecodes ) confused. Only very few species can be determined in the field based on external characteristics. Females can be distinguished on the basis of a closed hair fringe at the rear end of the fifth abdominal segment of male.
Occurrence
Honey bees are spread throughout the world and come out in Australia, where they are rare, often everywhere. The flight time is in Central Europe from March to September, with the animals usually fly in a generation in the spring, but some species fly in two generations in spring and summer.
Way of life
The Wasps Bees live as cuckoo bees are parasitic of other bee species. Mainly be sand bee ( Andrena ), but also furrows bees ( Lasioglossum ), longhorn bees ( Eucera ) Sägehornbienen ( Melitta ) and shaggy bees ( Panurgus ) parasitized. Species parasitize the most only to a specific host species, and are bound to their occurrence. If a host colony due to heavy infestation of wasps bees to basically die, subsequently, the parasites. In general, however, both host and parasite populations subsequently recover.
The adults feed on nectar and pollen. At night, the animals rest in burrows and flowers or bite into the mandibles of leaves and stems. Males can be observed flying in groups around shrubs and hedges. The females look first in a characteristic slow and maneuverable flight just above the ground on the host nests. If such a place, they persist with stretched forward sensors for a long time motionless on a lookout near the nest and wait for the host female has left the nest. Then they penetrate into the nest, where closed nest entrances dug and at least in some species after oviposition also be closed again. The animals probably drill with the claw-like extensions on the sixth sternite a hole in the brood cell wall and place from one or two eggs. The eggs are deposited in the cell wall that its tip extends halfway into the interior of the brood cell. After hatching, the parasite larva eats the egg or the larva of the host and then feeds off of its food supplies. Pupation takes place without cocoon in the brood cell.
If a wasp female bee surprised by a recurring host females, the female host is not behaving aggressively, which is probably due to scent secretions, which camouflage the parasite females. Meeting, however, two successive parasite females will fight aggressively for the host nest, thereby forming small territories of Wasps Bees in host aggregations.
Types (selection)
- Redhead wasp bee ( Nomada lathburiana )
- Forked wasp bee ( Nomada Nomada bifida or ruficornis )
- Red wasp bee ( Nomada armata )
- Nomada alboguttata
- Nomada argentata
- Nomada atroscutellaris
- Nomada basalis
- Nomada bifasciata
- Nomada blepharipes
- Nomada bluethgeni
- Nomada braunsiana
- Nomada carnifex
- Nomada castellana
- Nomada chrysopyga
- Nomada confinis
- Nomada conjungens
- Nomada connectens
- Nomada distinguenda
- Nomada errans
- Nomada fabriciana
- Nomada femoral
- Nomada ferruginata
- Nomada flava
- Nomada flavilabris
- Nomada flavoguttata
- Nomada fucata
- Nomada fulvicornis
- Nomada furva
- Nomada goodeniana
- Nomada gribodoi
- Nomada guttulata
- Nomada hirtipes
- Nomada italica
- Nomada kohli
- Nomada leucophthalma
- Nomada marshamella
- Nomada melathoracica
- Nomada moeschleri
- Nomada mutabilis
- Nomada mutica
- Nomada obscura
- Nomada obtusifrons
- Nomada opaca
- Nomada panurgina
- Nomada piccioliana
- Nomada pleurosticta
- Nomada posthuma
- Nomada roberjeotiana
- Nomada rufipes
- Nomada similis
- Nomada stigma
- Nomada succincta
- Nomada trapeziformis
- Nomada tridentirostris
- Nomada zonata