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Xylocopa erythrina Gribodo

(Life: Kingdom: Metazoa (animals); Phylum: Arthropoda; Class: Hexapoda; Order: Hymenoptera; Superfamily: Apoidea; Family: Apidae; Subfamily: Xylocopinae; Subfamily: Xylocopini; Genus: Xylocopa)

Xylocopa erythrina Gribodo, 1894. Lectotype in Genoa (MSNG). Type locality: Ethiopia.

Distribution

Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique,
Somalia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe.

Biology

Carpenter bees bore tunnels into wood to construct a nest, which they provision with a mixture of pollen and nectar sculptured into an elongate shape. This acts as a food source for their developing larvae. A number of partitions (each containing a single larva) may be constructed within the tunnel, the partitions are made out of chewed wood.

Recorded on flowers of: Cassia sp., Mentha sp. Nests in: Jacaranda sp., Pterocarpus sp., Uapaca kirkiana. Parasite: Physocephala bimarginipennis (Eardley & Urban, 2010).

References

Eardley, C.D. 1983. A taxonomic revision of the genus Xylocopa Latreille (Hymenoptera: Anthophoridae) in southern Africa. Entomology Memoir, Department of Agriculture, Republic of South Africa 58: 67pp.

Eardley, C & Urban, R. 2010. Catalogue of Afrotropical bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Apiformes). Zootaxa 2455: 1-548.

Michener, C.D. 2000. The Bees of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press. 953 pp.

Credits

Photographs of specimens in SAMC © Iziko Museums of South Africa.

Map illustration © Simon van Noort (Iziko Museums of South Africa).

Web author Simon van Noort (Iziko South African Museum)

 

Citation: van Noort, S. 2024. WaspWeb: Hymenoptera of the World. URL: www.waspweb.org (accessed on <day/month/year>).

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