Bee hotel

Coelioxys sp. (Sharp tailed bee)♀︎

Last update: 4 July 2020
garden
species


Rare

Location Krimpen aan den IJssel, garden
Observations
2019-VIII-262019-VIII-25


A female Sharp tailed bee (Coelioxys sp.) visited the bee hotels repeatedly over a period of two days.
She insepected all bee hotel sections and entered one or more open nest holes in sections I, II and III.

Probably the species is either C. inermis or C. elongata [2, 3].
Sharp tailed bees are cleptoparasites. C. elongata hosts include a.o. Patchwork leafcutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) and Willughby’s Leaf-cutter Bee (Megachile willughbiella),  C. inermis a.o. Patchwork leafcutter bee [1]. Both host species make use of the bee hotels and have nested in section I but are currently not active any more.

Sharp tailed bee ♀︎ (Coelioxys sp.)
Sharp tailed bee ♀︎ (Coelioxys sp.) entering an open nest cell in bee hotel section III

Literature

1 wildebijen.nl, "De Nederlandse bijen en hun relaties, overzicht van in Nederland en Vlaanderen voorkomende solitaire en sociale bijen (Apidea s.l.)"

2 SMIT, Jan. Determinatietabel voor de bijen van het genus Stelis in Nederland. Bzzz/HymenoVaria, 2010, 31.1: 39-41.

3 Rowson, R. & Pavett, M. 2008. A visual guide for the identification of British Coelioxys bees. 7pp. Privately published, Cardiff, UK.

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