Document Type
Article
Journal/Book Title/Conference
Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie
Volume
44
Publisher
Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin und Hamburg
Publication Date
2-25-1977
First Page
337
Last Page
374
Abstract
Over 200 bees of 4 African Xylocopa species were observed for 3 months on the island of Rubondo (L. Victoria, Tanzania). Some 40 burrows were investigated, 100 bees marked. Building techniques are minutely reported; burrow construction simplifies defence and allows re-use by succeeding generations. Food plants, collecting, provisioning and all aspects of ontogenesis are treated, insight given into pupal leg mobility and the much-debated emergence order after eclosion: the first-hatched bee, in the rearmost cell, prepares the way for siblings. Copulation and the copulatory hold are studied using tethered and illustrated. A few colonization experiments are described and a spectrogram of begging sounds given. Meeting of the generations, feeding of the young and nest-defence by young siblings throw light on the evolution of primitively eusocial communities. The known literature is reviewed in each chapter.
Recommended Citation
Anzenberger, Gustl, "Ethological Study of African Carpenter Bees of the Genus Xylocopa (Hymenoptera, Anthophoridae)" (1977). An. Paper 21.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/bee_lab_an/21