Anthophora

“ The Anthophoras have other parasites besides their cuckoos; one is a beetle, which, however, is rare, and which lays its egg in the Anthophora cells; the other is a very minute member of the Hymenopterous family, whose larva when hatched feeds upon the larva of the bee. Notwithstanding these disadvantages both species are abundant, although retusa is more local than pilipes. ”

“ This immobility means that the florets of the camomile serve them only as a place of ambush, even as later the Anthophora's body will serve them solely as a vehicle to convey them to the Bee's cell. They take no nourishment, either on the flowers or on the Bees; and, as with the Sitares, their first meal will consist of the Anthophora's egg, which the hooks of their mandibles are intended to rip open.
Their immobility is, as we have said, complete; but nothing is easier than to arouse their suspended activity. ”

“ Suspending their audacious patrolling before the galleries under construction, these spoilers of the victualled cells alight for an instant on a camomile-flower and lo, the thief is robbed! A tiny, imperceptible louse has slipped into the thick of the downy fur and, at the moment when the parasite, after destroying the Anthophora's egg, is laying her own upon the stolen honey, will creep upon this egg, destroy it in its turn and remain sole mistress of the provisions. ”

“ Once inside the Bee's cell, it has to destroy the egg; its sharp mandibles, curved into hooks, will fulfil this office. This done, there is a change of diet: after the Anthophora's egg the larva proceeds to consume the ration of honey. The environment in which it has to live also changes: instead of balancing itself on a hair of the Anthophora, it has now to float on a sticky fluid; instead of living in broad daylight, it has to remain plunged in the profoundest darkness. Its sharp mandibles must therefore become hollowed into a spoon that they may scoop up the honey ”

“ The parasite therefore established itself in the honey-warehouse before the warehouse was closed; on the other hand, the open cells, full of honey, but as yet without the egg of the Anthophora, are always free from parasites. It is therefore during the laying, or afterwards, when the Anthophora is occupied in plastering the door of the cell, that the young larva gains admittance. It is impossible to decide by experiment to which of these two periods we must ascribe the introduction of the Sitares into the cell ”

“ A difficulty similar to what is found in the distinction between Andrena and Cilissa, arises in the separation of Chelostoma from Heriades, and which we shall again meet with in drawing the line between Anthophora and Saropoda. The difference can only be detected by examining the trophi, but a pin and a little patience will elucidate the separation. The males in all but two species of Anthophora may be readily associated with their partners ”

“ When dropping her egg upon the honey, therefore, the Anthophora at the same time deposits in her cell the mortal enemy of her race; she carefully plasters the lid which closes the entrance to the cell; and all is done. A second cell is built beside it, probably to suffer the same fatal doom; and so on until the more or less numerous parasites sheltered by her down are all accommodated. Let us leave the unhappy mother to continue her fruitless task and turn our attention to the young larva which has so adroitly secured itself board and lodging. ”

“ Let us now try honey. We must obviously employ honey prepared by the same species of Anthophora as that at whose cost the Sitares live. But this Bee is not very common in the neighbourhood of Avignon; and my engagements at the college1 do not allow me to absent myself for the purpose of repairing to Carpentras, where she is so abundant. In hunting for cells provisioned with honey I thus lose a good part of the month of May; however, I end by finding some which are newly sealed and which belong to the right Anthophora. I open these cells with the feverish impatience of a sorely-tried longing. ”

“ If we search the dwellings of the Anthophoræ during the early days of August, this is what we see: the cells forming the superficial layer are not like those situated at a greater depth. This difference arises from the fact that the same establishment is exploited simultaneously by the Anthophora and by an Osmia (O. tricornis) 4 as is proved by an observation made at the working-period, in May. The Anthophoræ are the actual pioneers, the work of boring the galleries is wholly theirs; and their cells are situated right at the end. ”

“ Sharp is good enough to tell us that he is not aware of any such adaptation. Broadly speaking, the distribution of the nest-inhabiting beetles is due to co-migration with the ants, though in some cases the ants transport the beetles. Sitaris and Meloe are beetles which live "at the expense of bees of the genus Anthophora." The eggs are laid not in but near the bees' nest; in the early stage the larva is active and has the instinct to seize any hairy object near it, and in this way they are carried by the Anthophora to the nest. ”

“ Since we cannot admit that the Sitaris-grub leaves the furry corselet of its hostess to slip unseen into the cell, whose orifice is not yet wholly walled up, at the moment when the Anthophora is building her door, all that remains to investigate is the second at which the egg is being laid. ”

“ The oval niches, the cells that open on those corridors, are also profitably employed. The Anthophora restores their entrance, which has been destroyed by the insect's recent emergence; she smooths their walls with a fresh coat of whitewash, after which the lodging is fit to receive the heap of honey and the egg. When the old cells, insufficient in number and moreover partly inhabited by diverse intruders, are all occupied, the boring of new cells begins, in the extended sections of the galleries, and the rest of the eggs are housed. In this way, the swarm is settled at a minimum of expense. ”

“ We do not see them wandering from spot to spot, exploring the Anthophora's body, seeking the part where the skin is more delicate, as they would certainly do if they were really deriving some nourishment from the juices of the Bee. ”

“ The Anthophora's cells contain this bee in the larval stage. Some of them provide me with the oil beetle and the Sitaris, rare finds at one time, today of no use to me. Others contain the Melecta [a parasitic bee] in the form of a highly colored pupa, or even in that of the full grown insect. The Osmia, still more precocious, though dating from the same period, shows herself exclusively in the adult form, a bad omen for my investigations, for what the Anthrax demands is the larva and not the perfect insect. The fly's grub doubles my apprehensions. ”

“ The genus Anthophora, to which the genus Saropoda is very closely allied,—so closely, indeed, that by the celebrated hymenopterologist Le Pelletier de St. Fargeau the species of both are incorporated together,—has, even as now restricted, a world-wide dissemination, and numbers nearly a hundred and fifty species. Several of our own occur throughout France and Italy and the whole of northern Europe, and even among the Esquimaux in the arctic regions, showing that a bridal bouquet may be gathered even there; for where bees are flowers must abound. ”

“ Its larva, after long waiting, springs upon the male Anthophora as it goes out of the passage, clings to it, and remains attached until the "nuptial flight," when it seizes the opportunity to pass from the male to the female, and quietly waits until it lays its eggs. ”

“ Despite the selection of a common site for their nests, which might suggest an attempt at communistic interests among the Anthophoræ, these Bees, therefore, obey the egotistical law of each one for himself and do not know how to band themselves together to repel an enemy who threatens one and all. Taken singly, the Anthophora does not even know how to dash at the enemy who is ravaging her cells and drive him away with her stings ”

“ At this period they have become more active, and, in order to complete their development, are thinking of profiting by their favourable situation near the entrance to a gallery of the Hymenoptera; when a male Anthophora comes within reach, two or three of them catch hold of him and climb on to his thorax. They maintain themselves there by clinging to the hairs. At the moment of fertilisation the male, thus burdened, comes in contact with the female ”

“ Let us take an Anthophora-cell full of honey and furnished with an egg and, after removing the lid, place it in a glass tube with a few Sitaris-grubs. The grubs do not appear at all eager for this wealth of nectar placed within their reach; they wander at random about the tube, run about the outside of the cell, sometimes happen upon the edge of the orifice and very rarely venture inside. When they do, they do not go far in and they come out again at once. ”

“ Its processes are similar to those of some of the earlier described, but its larva is longer in full feeding, which, when it has consumed all its provender spins a tough cocoon of brown silk, wherein it undergoes its changes; some, depending much upon locality, pass into pupæ in the autumn, others hibernate as larvæ which are subject to destruction from the attacks of the Chalcideous insect, Monodontomerus dentipes, previously noticed under Anthophora. ”

“ Exceedingly multifarious are the ways in which insects thus provide for the future of young they will never see. Antherophagus lives in flowers, and is believed to seize with its mandibles humble bees, which then unwittingly bear the parasitic beetle to the nests in which alone the larvæ have been found. The larvæ of our common oil-beetle (Meloë) are parasitic on the bee, Anthophora. It deposits its ten thousand eggs without observable discrimination; but the active young larva instinctively seizes and attaches itself to any hairy object. ”

“ Her young are not, in this supposed retreat, entirely free from danger. The most invidious foes enter and attack the brood. Three species of Ichneumon flies, two of which belong to the Chalcid family, lay their eggs within the body of the larva, and emerge from the dried larva and pupa skins of the bee, often in great numbers. The smallest parasite, belonging to the genus Anthophorabia, so called from being first known as a parasite on another bee (Anthophora) , is a minute species found also abundantly in the tight cells of the Leaf-cutter bee. ”

“ Nor do botanical conditions seem to influence them beyond, the probability of their dissemination being restricted to the special diffusion of the families of such plants whose genera and species they frequent with us.
Thus, inhabiting Northern Europe we find in—
Lapland. Cilissa; Anthophora; Epeolus; Megachile; Chelostoma; Heriades; Osmia; Apathus; Bombus; Apis.
Finland. Colletes; Prosopis; Cilissa; Anthophora; Nomada; Epeolus; Stelis; Cœlioxys; Megachile; Anthidium; Chelostoma; Heriades; Osmia; Apathus; Bombus; Apis.
Sweden. All our genera except Sphecodes; Halictus; Macropis; Anthocopa. ”

“ It puts them in a position to profit by it, and when they are installed they know sufficiently well what to do. The species has so long perpetuated itself by this process that it has become, both in mother and offspring, highly automatic. It is a hymenopterous insect which this family, whose first vital manifestation is theft, thus levies a contribution on. It is called the Anthophora pilifera, and during the fine weather it makes a collection of honey intended to be absorbed by its own larvæ, if it had not the misfortune to be watched by one of these intriguing Coleoptera. ”

“ Our own species occur throughout the whole of Europe, north and south. Others are found in Sicily, Albania, the Morea, and show themselves at Bagdad. The genus has been sent from the Canaries, and crosses the tropics into Chili, but does not seem to have occurred elsewhere in either North or South America, although one of the genera (Eucera) on which, with us, it is parasitical, is found in the latter country, and the other genus (Anthophora) , which it also infests, is found throughout the world, excepting in Australasia. ”

“ These insects, in fact, watch the departure of the Anthophora to endeavour to penetrate into their nests and lay their eggs there. The gallery of entry and exit has been built with grains of sand, the débris produced by the insect in working. These grains of sand glued together form, on drying, a very resistant wall.101
Fig. 35.
The other animals of which I have to speak are genuine masons, who prepare their mortar by tempering moistened earth. Every one has seen the Swallow in spring working at its nest in the corner of a window. ”

“ In the family of Bees, especially in the solitary species, as I hear from the same entomologist, the sexes often differ in colour. The males are generally the brighter, and in Bombus as well as in Apathus, much more variable in colour than the females. In Anthophora retusa the male is of a rich fulvous-brown, whilst the female is quite black: so are the females of several species of Xylocopa, the males being bright yellow. On the other hand the females of some species, as of Andræna fulva, are much brighter-coloured than the males. ”

“ In Colletes, Prosopis, Dasypoda, Panurgus, Ceratina, Nomada, Melecta, Epeolus, Stelis, and Anthidium, the habit or colouring of the males is so similar to that of the females, that their genus may be thus at once determined, and, in fact, the brief characters in the table will embrace them.
The male Eucera can be distinguished from those of Anthophora and Saropoda, both by the differences in the number of the submarginal cells of the wing, and by the extreme length of its antennæ, whence the genus derives its name. In Andrena and Cilissa, the males have usually lanceolate bodies. ”