New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
Nesting biology, life cycle, and interactions between females of Manuelia
postica, a solitary species of the Xylocopinae (Hymenoptera:
Apidae)
Luis Flores-Prado1
Elizabeth Chiappa2
Hermann M. Niemeyer1
1Departamento de Ciencias Ecológicas
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad de Chile
Casilla 653
Santiago, Chile
lflores@abulafia.ciencias.uchile.cl
2Instituto de Entomología
Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación
Casilla 147
Santiago, Chile
Abstract The Xylocopinae contains four
tribes with species
which show a range of nesting habits, from solitary to social. The
Manueliini is the sister group to all other Xylocopine tribes, with one
genus, Manuelia, of three species found mainly in Chile. This
is a solitary genus, whose biology is scarcely known for two species, M.
gayatina and M. gayi, and so far completely unknown for M.
postica. This paper reports on nesting substrates, nest
architecture, nesting behaviours, life cycle, and interactions between
females at nesting sites, for M. postica. The results indicate
that M. postica presents some features which are typical of
solitary life, and also some features which are unusual in solitary
bees but have been reported in phylogenetically more apical social
species. Our findings open interesting questions on the ecological
scenarios involved in the evolution of sociality within the
Xylocopinae.
Keywords Manuelia postica; nest
architecture; nesting
behaviour; solitary bee
Z07039; Online publication date 22 February 2008; Received 20 July
2007, accepted 10 December 2007
New Zealand Journal of Zoology, 2008, Vol. 35: 93–102
0301–4223/08/3501–0093 © The Royal Society of New Zealand 2008
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