91亚色 U researcher identifies 15 new species of stealthy cuckoo bees
One of the new cuckoo bees is named after Sir David Attenborough
TORONTO, Tuesday, May 8, 2018 鈥 Cuckoo bees sneakily lay their eggs in the nests of other bee species, after which their newly hatched prodigies kill the host egg or larva, and then feed on the stored pollen. The host, a solitary bee, never knows anything is awry. Nine new species of these clandestine bees have been found hiding in collections and museums across North America by 91亚色 PhD Candidate Thomas Onuferko, as well as another six unpublished in a decades old academic thesis.
A female cuckoo bee or Epeolus
More closely resembling wasps in appearance, cuckoo bees lack the typical fuzzy look usually attributed to bees as they don鈥檛 need those hairs to collect pollen for their young. Although not much is known about them, cuckoo bees are named after cuckoo birds which exhibit the same cleptoparasitic behaviour.
There are now a total of 43 known cuckoo bees in the genus Epeolus (pronounced ee-pee-oh-lus) in North America, many of which go unnoticed hovering low to the ground in backyards or 鈥渟leeping鈥 on leaves, as they don鈥檛 have nests of their own. They are only 5.5 to 10 mm in length, smaller and rarer than the polyester bees whose nests they invade.
鈥淚t may seem surprising to some that in well-researched places like Canada and the United States there is still the potential for the discovery of new species,鈥 says Onuferko of the 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Science. 鈥淧eople have been aware of a few of the new species that I鈥檓 describing, but they鈥檝e never been formerly named. There is a whole bunch of other species, however, that no one knew about.鈥
Part of the reason it鈥檚 taken so long to identify these new cuckoo bees is that they are small, uncommonly collected and can be difficult to tell apart. Onuferko visited collections across North America and had specimens sent to the Packer Lab at 91亚色 for examination.
Many of the newly described cuckoo bees, including one Onuferko named after well-known British broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough 鈥 Epeolus attenboroughi, possess very short black, white, red and yellow hairs that form attractive patterns.
Onuferko named another cuckoo bee after 91亚色 bee expert and thesis adviser Professor 鈥 Epeolus packeri.
Where did the name 鈥渆peolus鈥 come from? Onuferko thinks it鈥檚 likely a diminutive of Epeus/Epeius, the name of the soldier in Greek mythology who is attributed with coming up with the Trojan horse war strategy.
All 15 new species are now formally described, which will allow other researchers and bee enthusiasts to keep a lookout for them.
The paper, , is published in the open access journal .
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