Lasioglossum malachurum
| Lasioglossum malachurum | |
|---|---|
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| Female | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Halictidae |
| Genus: | Lasioglossum |
| Subgenus: | Evylaeus |
| Species: | L. malachurum |
| Binomial name | |
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Lasioglossum malachurum (Kirby, 1802) |
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Lasioglossum malachurum is a small European halictid bee. This species is obligately eusocial, with queens and workers, though the differences between the castes are not nearly as extreme as in honey bees. Early taxonomists mistakenly assigned the worker females to a different species from the queens. They are small (~1 cm), shiny, mostly black bees with off-white hair bands at the bases of the abdominal segments.L. malachurum is one of the more extensively studied species in the genus Lasioglossum, also known as sweat bees. Researchers have discovered that the eusocial behavior in colonies of L. malachurum varies significantly dependent upon the region of Europe in which each colony is located.
L. malachurum was described by the entomologist William Kirby in 1802. This species of bees fall within the genus Lasioglossum, which is the largest bee genera.Lasioglossum falls within the family Halictidae, which includes small to midsize bees and is commonly referred to as the sweat bee family because Halictidae are frequently attracted to human perspiration.L. malachurum falls within the order Hymenoptera, a large order of generally winged insects containing wasps, bees, and ants. One species of lasioglossum that is closely related to the L. malachurum is L. hemichalceum.
Physical size is a major distinguishing feature between queens and gynes versus female worker bees. Queens consistently demonstrate larger body size than workers. Queens also tend to have worn wings and worn mandibles as a result of higher activity, in addition to greater ovarian development correlating with the reproductive capacity of queens. Queens also generally have abundant fat stores. This physical dimorphism persists throughout all stages of the life cycle, from pupae to adult. Rarely, queens can be abnormally small to the size of a worker, but abnormally large workers have never been observed in the wild.
The sweat bee has a simple nesting architecture consisting of a vertical tunnel into the ground ending in a compartment reserved for brood-rearing. They nest underground, like Lasioglossum zephyrum, but they do not form the same complex structures. Nest entrances are frequently concealed using scattered foliage. For L. malachurum, thousands of nests can be found located within a small region in nesting aggregations, which suggests that the bees likely have some sort of identification mechanism for their own specific nests. In fact, nest entrances and brood cell linings are both impregnated with secretions from the Dufour's gland of the bee, which plays a role in nest orientation. Nests are dug into hard, compact soil and can be sealed from within by the queen using her abdomen. Because nests are dug into hard soil, construction of a nest represents a significant energy expense to a queen, which explains why gynes frequently usurp other nests rather than founding one of their own.L. malachurum is a Western Palaearctic species and nests can be found across Southern England and the Channel Islands, most of continental Europe, and North Africa.
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Wikipedia