Male strategies and mating behavior in the Neotropical bee Epicharis (Anepicharis) dejeanii (Apidae: Centridini)

Reproductive behavior of the oil-collecting bee Epicharis dejeanii (Apidae: Centridini)

“…The approach of males upon females was similar to that registered by Hiller and Wittmann (1994) and Pina et al (2020). When a male detects a virgin female, he flies over her and knocked down in order to initiate the mating.…”

“…A new male strategy to access virgin females was confirmed in this study. The results here presented complement those published by Hiller and Wittmann (1994) and Pina et al (2020) on this species.…”

“…dawsoni , the dispute for mating generates fights between males that result in the death of many of them, including of some females (Alcock 2013). In other species of solitary bees, two male strategies have been recorded: some of them patrol the nesting area while others patrol the flowers visited by the virgin females (Wcislo 1992;Simpson 1992, 1997;Alcock et al 2010;Pina et al 2020).…”

“…Hiller and Wittmann (1994) recorded the male's activity that patrolled in an aggregation area, the density of individuals, and the approach of the males on virgin females to mate. Additional information on reproductive biology of the species such as the duration of the mating, the behavior of males and females during the mating, and the male's strategy to patrolling over the flowers visited by females was confirmed by Pina et al (2020). We conducted a study with the aim to recognize the different steps of the mating behavior and presented new details on the male and female's behavior during the mating.…”

Nest Structure, Seasonality and Female Behavior of Epicharis (Anepicharis) dejeanii Lepeletier (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Centridini) in a Restinga Ecosystem, in Southern Brazil

“…A combination of different appropriate factors, including soil texture and plenty and stable food resources have been pointed out as affecting the long-term persistence of such aggregations (Danforth et al, 2019). In addition, the habit of build nests in aggregations shown by a number of species of bees seems to have some advantages, including, for example, both high chances of encounters between partners for mating (Pina et al, 2020) and detections of cleptoparasites by the host bees (Litman, 2019).…”