Amegilla dawsoni

Amegilla dawsoni
Amegilla dawsoni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Tribe: Anthophorini
Genus: Amegilla
Species: A. dawsoni
Binomial name
Amegilla dawsoni
Rayment, 1951

Amegilla dawsoni, sometimes called Dawson's burrowing bee, is a species of bee which nests by the thousands in arid claypans in Western Australia.[1]

Male Dawson's bees, one of the world's largest bee species, are so aggressive that they kill each other en masse in a bid to mate with females.[2]

The Bee Cycle Male Dawson bees leave their burrows earlier than female Dawson bees. The male bees have developed two distinct tactics of securing a mate.

  1. Smaller, minor males patrol either flower patches where females forage or around the periphery of the entrance to the female's burrows.
  2. Larger males patrol entrance sites of emerging bees, seeking to mate with them as soon as they appear.

References

  1. ^ "Dawson's Burrowing Bee (Amegilla dawsoni)". Australian Native Bee Research Centre. http://www.aussiebee.com.au/dawson_s_burrowing.html. Retrieved 5 May 2010. 
  2. ^ Matt Walker (12 November 2009). "Bees fight to death over females". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8354000/8354788.stm. 
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