''Protandrena (Anthemurgus) passiflorae'' (the passionflower bee) is a small (7.5-8.5 mm long) black bee that occurs from central Texas to North Carolina and north to Illinois. Females of this
solitary bee
Solitary is the state of being alone or in solitude. The term may refer to:
* Solitary (album), ''Solitary'' (album), 2008 album by Don Dokken
* Solitary (2020 film), ''Solitary'' (2020 film), a British sci-fi thriller film
* Solitary (upcoming fi ...
use collected nectar and pollen to feed larvae located in nests constructed in the ground (through
mass provisioning
Mass provisioning is a form of parental investment in which an adult insect, most commonly a hymenopteran such as a bee or wasp, stocks all the food for each of her offspring in a small chamber (a "cell") before she lays the egg. This behavior is ...
). This uncommon bee is unusual for two reasons: first, the only known pollen host is a single species—the yellow passionflower (''
Passiflora lutea
''Passiflora lutea'', commonly known as yellow passionflower, is a flowering perennial vine in the family Passifloraceae, native to the central and eastern United States. The vine has three-lobed leaves and small, yellowish-green, fringed flowers ...
'') (such specialization is called
oligolecty
The term oligolecty is used in pollination ecology to refer to bees that exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources, typically to a single family or genus of flowering plants. The preference may occasionally extend broadly to mu ...
); second, because of its size and foraging habits, the passionflower bee is thought to contribute little or nothing toward the pollination of its host plant. Female bees remove pollen from ''P. lutea'' by suspending themselves under an
anther
The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10
Morphology and terminology
A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...
and scraping the pollen out with open mandibles. This unique position of pollen collection almost never results in pollination as the female bee rarely touches the
stigma. Historically the genus ''Anthemurgus'' contained only the passionflower bee and thus was considered a
monotypic taxon
In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of Genus, genera, the term ...
, and some more recent authorities treated it as a monotypic subgenus within the genus ''
Pseudopanurgus'', it has recently been included in the genus ''
Protandrena''. The genome as recently been sequenced as part of th
Beenome100project, part of a collaboration between the USDA ARS, the University of Illinois, and other university researchers.
References
External links
Schappert, Phil. The passionflower bee in the Lost Pines. Lost Pines Nature Notes, Number 57.
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2363296
Andrenidae
Insects of the United States
Monotypic bee genera