The Rhathymini are a tribe of
kleptoparasitic apid bees ("
cuckoo bee
The term cuckoo bee is used for a variety of different bee lineages which have evolved the kleptoparasitic behaviour of laying their eggs in the nests of other bees, reminiscent of the behavior of cuckoo birds. The name is perhaps best applied t ...
s").
Description
The Rhathymini consists of bees typically moderate to large in size, ranging body length.
Visually, scholars have compared their appearance to that of
vespid wasps (especially ''
Polistes
''Polistes'' is a cosmopolitan genus of paper wasps and the only genus in the tribe Polistini. Vernacular names for the genus include umbrella wasps, coined by Walter Ebeling in 1975 to distinguish it from other types of paper wasp, in refer ...
''), or the giant species of the bee genus ''
Nomada.''
Behavior
As a
kleptoparasitic species, the Rhathymini forego the typical
pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or bu ...
process common amongst bee species to feed their offspring, and instead lay their eggs within the nests already provisioned by other bee species.
[
Rhathymini have been documented to display aggression toward other bee ecosystems, including documented instances of attacking the nests of other bees.]
Genera
*'' Nanorhathymus''
*'' Rhathymus''
References
Apinae
Bee tribes
Brood parasites
Taxa named by Amédée Louis Michel le Peletier
{{Apinae-stub