Dasypoda hirtipes

Dasypoda hirtipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Melittidae
Subfamily: Dasypodainae
Genus: Dasypoda
Species: D. hirtipes
Binomial name
Dasypoda hirtipes
Fabricius, 1793

Dasypoda hirtipes is a mining bee. The females have unmistakable large orange brown hairbrushes at the hindlegs. With these brushes the females collect pollen from yellow Asteraceae. The females are nesting in, sometimes large, nest aggregations. Each female has her own burrow, and the sand from excavation is left as a wall around the entrance of the burrow.

Courtship

The males are looking for females near the nesting site or at the flowers the females are visiting.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.