User:MtBotany/sandbox
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Andrenidae |
| Genus: | Andrena |
| Species: | A. astragali
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| Binomial name | |
| Andrena astragali Viereck & Cockerell, 1914
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Taxonomy and phylogeny[edit]
The species was first described by Henry Lorenz Viereck and Theodore D. A. Cockerell in 1914,[1] two entomologists with the University of Colorado Boulder.[2] It was inadvertantly named a second time as Andrena zygadeni by Cockerell from specimens collected in California feeding on flowers of the plant then named Zigadenus fremontii, now Toxicoscordion fremontii.[3]
Names[edit]
The species name, A. astragali, is unfortunate as it refers to the genus Astragalus, the locoweeds. The first specimen collected by Viereck and Cockerell, was found on one of those flowers in Nebraska. They named the species assuming that was primarily or exclusively a pollinator of that genus, when in fact they mostly visit Toxicoscodion flowers and bee collected was an outlier.[3] The species has a number of common names related to its specialized feeding behaviors. In English it is called the "death camas bee" and "death camas miner bee" because it is a specialist pollinator of flowers in the deathcamas genus (Toxicoscordion).[4][2]
Description and identification[edit]
Description[edit]
Behavior[edit]
Foraging[edit]
The death camas bee forages largely or entirely at the flowers they were named for. Pollen loads being carried by females may contain as much as 80% Toxicoscodion pollen, and they may only visit other flowers for nectar before seeking pollen.[3] In provisioning nests for their larvae females gather pollen and nectar that will contain at least 30 μg of zygacine.[5]
Experiments with the orchard mason bee (Osmia lignaria, conclusively showed that nectar and pollen from Toxicoscordion paniculatum and Toxicoscordion venosum are poisonous to solitary bees as well as to honeybees. Scientists studying the interactions hypothesize that the evolution of tolerance for the poisons by the death camas bee is an adaptation to deter predators and/or parasites. However, further research is needed to determine if the exclusivity of rewards for the one species of bee may be a factor.[5] Though it is the only bee that feeds upon death camas flowers, a fly species, Earomyia melnickae, was described in 2022 which so far has only been observed to feed at meadow death camas flowers as an adult.[6]
References[edit]
- ^ Krombein, Karl V. (1979). Catalog of Hymenoptera in America North of Mexico. Vol. 2: Apocrita. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. p. 1795. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b Mitton, Jeff (1 April 2022). "A rare relationship between death camas and death camas miner bees". Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b c Tepedino, Vincent J. (2003). "What's in a Name? The Confusing Case of the Death Camas Bee, Andrena astragali Viereck and Cockerell (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae)". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 76 (2): 194–197. ISSN 0022-8567. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ Sardiñas, Hillary (2016). "Getting to Know Our Native Bees". Washington Park Arboretum Bulletin. 78 (2). Seattle, Washington: Washington Park Arboretum Foundation: 12–13. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
- ^ a b Cane, James H; Gardner, Dale R; Weber, Melissa (2 December 2020). "Neurotoxic alkaloid in pollen and nectar excludes generalist bees from foraging at death-camas, Toxicoscordion paniculatum (Melanthiaceae)". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society. 131 (4): 927–935. doi:10.1093/biolinnean/blaa159.
- ^ MacGowan, Iain; Astle, Tom (20 December 2022). "A new species of Earomyia Zetterstedt, 1842 (Diptera; Lonchaeidae) from Montana, U.S.A., associated with the toxic plant Toxicoscordion venenosum (S. Watson) Rydb. (Melanthiaceae)". The Pan-Pacific Entomologist. 98 (4). doi:10.3956/2022-98.4.313.