|
| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the families of Hymenoptera |
Mining and Burrowing Bees.
Adults small to medium sized; 5–13 mm long. Social insects forming organized communities, or solitary insects; the adult populations including specialised, sterile females constituting ‘workers’, or comprising males and fertile females only.
Head. Antennal segments (10–)12 (females), or (10–)13 (males). Tongue shorter than the prementum; pointed. Labial palps with all the segments similar in length and subcylindrical. Mentum and submentum more or less absent.
Thorax. Thorax black or yellow. 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 to without a pterostigma; with the venation well developed. Closed fore-wing cells 6–10. Submarginal cells 2, or 3. Discoidal cells 2. The basal forewing vein (BV) markedly arched. 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); not highly metallic. The gaster concolorous, or colour-patterned; when concolorous, black, yellow or orange; when patterned, black-and-orange, black-and-yellow or black-and-white. 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 (in the nests of other bees), or feeding on material manufactured by the adults.
British representation. Species in Britain about 60; Dufourea, Halictus, Lasioglossum, Rophites, Sphecodes.
Classification. Suborder Apocrita; Series Aculeata; Superfamily Apoidea.
Illustrations. • Lasioglossum tricingulum Curtis, = L. xanthopum (Long-tongued Melitta, and Halictus sp.: B. Ent. 448). • Lasioglossum tricingulum: B. Ent. 448, type generic description?). • Halictus sp.: B. Ent. 448, text cont.). • Sphecodes monilicornis, female (detail: Saunders XXIII). • Halictus, Sphecodes (Saunders XXIV). HALICTIDAE. 1 and 2: Specodes gibbus, male (1) and female. 3, Sphecodes pellucidus (male). 4, Sphecodes crassus (male). 5 and 6, Halictus ruficrus: male (5) and female. 7–17, genital armature of males of Specodes species: 7, Sphecodes gibbus; 8, Sphecodes reticulatus; 9, Sphecodes monilicornis; 10, Sphecodes pellucidus; 11, Sphecodes ephippius; 12, Sphecodes puncticeps; 13, Sphecodes niger; 14, Sphecodes ferruginatus; 15, Sphecodes hyalinatus; 16, Sphecodes miniatus; 17, Sphecodes fasciatus. from Saunders, 1896. • 2 Halictus and 5 Lasioglossum species (Saunders XXV). HALICTIDAE. 1, Halictus eurygnathus (female). 2, Halictus maculatus (male). 3, Lasioglossum xanthopum (female). 4, Lasioglossum leucozonium (female). 5, Lasioglossum sexnotatum (female). 6, Lasioglossum laevigatum (female). 7–12, genital armature of males: 7, Halictus rubicundus; 8, Halictus eurygnathus; 9, Halictus maculatus; 10, Lasioglossum xanthopum; 11, Lasioglossum quadrinotatum. 12, Lasioglossum laevigatum. From Saunders (1896). • 7 Lasioglossum species (Saunders XXVI). HALICTIDAE. 1 and 2, Lasioglossum calceatum: male (1) and female. 3 and 4, Lasioglossum fulvicorne: male (3) and female. 5, Lasioglossum pauperatum (male). 6, Lasioglossum rufitarse (male). 7–12, genital armature of males: 7, Lasioglossum prasinum; 8, Lasioglossum calceatum; 9, Lasioglossum villosulum; 10, Lasioglossum parvulum (anterior view); 11, Lasioglossum rufitarse (dorsal view); 12, Lasioglossum rufitarse (anterior view. From Saunders (1896). • 2 Halictus and 3 Lasioglossum species (Saunders XXVII). HALICTIDAE. 1 and 2, Halictus tumulorum: male (1) and female. 3, Halictus subauratus (female). 4, Lasioglossum smeathmanellum (female). 5, Lasioglossum morio (male). 6, Lasioglossum leucopum (male). 7–10, genital armature of males: 7, Halictus tumularum; 8, Lasioglossum smeathmanellum; 9, Lasioglossum morio; 10, Lasioglossum leucopum. From Saunders (1896). • Dufourea vulgaris, Rophites quinquespinosus (Saunders XXXVI). HALICTIDAE. 2 and 9: Dufourea vulgaris, female and genital armature of male. 3 and 8, Rophites quinquespinosus, female and genital armature of the male. From Saunders (1896, Plate XXXVI).
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’.
