Nesting biology and immature stages of the oil-collecting bee Epicharis dejeanii (Apidae: Centridini)

Abstract

An aggregation of the oil-collecting bee Epicharis dejeanii Lepeletier was studied at Ilha das Flores, southern Brazil. Data on seasonality, types of floral resources collected, and nesting biology were registered. The nesting area occupied 120 m 2 with density of up to 8 nests/m 2. The tunnel entrances remained always open and surrounded by a tumulus. Adult activity lasted approximately 70 days. The females built the nest, provisioned food, and layed the egg in 4 days. The nest's architecture was very diverse, and they were between 40 and 140 cm in depth with one or two brood cells at the end of the tunnel. Diapause occurred in the postdefecating larval stage, and there was no cocoon. Immature stages and nest architecture are described and illustrated.

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

“…Epicharis Klug, 1807 (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Centridini) is an exclusively Neotropical genus of bees representing about 35 species, which exhibit solitary behavior, the habit of digging their nests in the ground, usually in large aggregations (Roubik & Michener, 1980;Hiller & Wittmann, 1994;Gaglianone, 2005;Thiele & Inouye, 2007;Rocha-Filho et al, 2008;Rozen, 2016;Dec & Vivallo, 2019). Epicharis belongs to a group of approximately 400 species known as oil-collecting bees, due to the female behavior of collecting floral oils, which are used for both cell construction and larval provisions (Alves-dos-Santos et al, 2007;Gaglianone et al, 2011).…”

“…Aspects of the nesting biology for different species of Epicharis, including details on the nest architecture and female behavior during nest construction and cell provisioning, have been studied in seven out of nine subgenera belonging to the genus (see Gaglianone, 2005). In general, the different species and subgenera of Epicharis studied so far construct the brood cells deep down in sandy soils (Gaglianone, 2005;Thiele & Inouye, 2007;Rocha-Filho et al, 2008;Rozen, 2016;Dec & Vivallo, 2019). Detailed nest descriptions have also been used in assessments on the evolution of nest habitat and architecture in this genus (Thiele & Inouye, 2007).…”

“…Epicharis (Anepicharis) dejeanii Lepeletier, 1841, the only member of this subgenus (Moure et al, 2012), is a univoltine species that constructs its nests in aggregations in sandy soil (Hiller & Wittmann, 1994;Dec & Vivallo, 2019). This species occurs in South America (Moure et al, 2012).…”

“…To date, although information on the nest architecture of E. dejeanii has already been published by Hiller and Wittmann (1994) and, more recently, by Dec and Vivallo (2019), some aspects related to nest structure of this species, such as number of cells per nest, are divergent in both studies. Concerning this subject, specifically in the preliminary study carried out by Hiller and Wittmann (1994), the authors inferred the number of brood cells per nest, reporting a number of 52 brood cells found in an area containing only five nests; suggesting thus, approximately 10 cells per nest (Hiller & Wittmann, 1994; reviewed by Gaglianone, 2005).…”

Notes on the nest architecture of Centris (Centris) caxiensis Ducke (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in an urban dry forest fragment in northeastern Brazil

“…Coville et al (1983) suggested that this type of structure is plesiomorphic for Centris species, being reported in C. pallida (Alcock et al 1976;Buchmann 1990), C. cockerelli, C. rhodopus (Alcock et al 1976), C. flavifrons (Vinson and Frankie 1988;Rêgo et al 2006), C. flavofasciata (Vinson and Frankie 1999;Rozen et al 2011), and C. aethiocesta Snelling (Vinson and Frankie 1988). The construction of nests with a single brood cell, although uncommon in Centris, is frequently seen in Epicharis Klug, 1807 species, such as E. nigrita Friese (Gaglianone 2005), E. bicolor Smith (Rocha-Filho et al 2008), and E. dejeanii Lepeletier (Dec and Vivallo 2019). This type of architecture appears to be energetically inefficient when compared to a multicelled nest since females spent a lot of energy in the digging process to construct a single brood cell.…”