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BugGuide Gathering
Smoky Mountains
University of Tennessee Biological Field Station
August 8-10, 2008

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps » Anthophila (Apoidea) - Bees » Leaf-cutter bees, Mason Bees, and allies (Megachilidae) » Megachilinae » Megachilini » Coelioxys

Genus Coelioxys

Classification · Other Common Names · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Bee [Coelioxys?] ID Request - Coelioxys - male

Bee [Megachile] ID Request - Coelioxys - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon (Aculeata - Bees, Ants, and other Stinging Wasps)

No Taxon (Anthophila (Apoidea) - Bees)

Family Megachilidae (Leaf-cutter bees, Mason Bees, and allies)

Subfamily Megachilinae

Tribe Megachilini

Genus Coelioxys

Other Common Names

Cuckoo Leafcutting Bee, Leafcutter-parasite

Explanation of Names

Author of genus is Latreille, 1809. According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), coeli- is the combining form, before a vowel, of coelio, Greek, belly. There is a related Greek form, coel(i)- meaning hollow. The spelling seems to indicate the first meaning. Suffix -oxys is Greek sharp. So this is the "sharp-belly", or perhaps, "sharp abdomen". (Based on the OED and Internet searches.)

Numbers

Arnett, p. 605 lists 10 subgenera for a total of about 45 species. (1)

nearctica.com lists 45 species.

Identification

"Abdomen conical, pointed in female, armed with teeth or spines in male" (2). Lack pollen baskets under abdomen, otherwise resemble a Megachile.

Range

Discover Life Global map

Habitat

Seen at flowers in fields, etc.

Season

Typically June-September (North Carolina)

Food

Adults take nectar at flowers. (They must be eating for themselves, because they do not provision a nest.)

Life Cycle

Cleptoparasites, usually of Megachile (other hosts are known in the Neotropics and elsewhere). Remove eggs of another species and lay their own egg on provisions.

Remarks

Guide TBA--PC (Details of life history from Taber)

Lutz, 3rd ed., plate 70, description. p. 433 (2)

Brimley, p. 460 (3)

Taber, p. 66, describes life history, female's use of abdominal structure. (4) Quotes source below:

Graenicher. On the biology of the parasitic bees of the genera Coelioxys. Ent. News 1927; 38:231-235, 273-276.

Internet References

Insects of Cedar Creek--three specimens.

Discover Life--has diagrams of different species

Works Cited

1.	American Insects: A Handbook of the Insects of America North of Mexico By Ross H. Arnett

2.	Field Book of Insects of the United States and Canada, Aiming to Answer Common Questions, By Frank Eugene Lutz

3.	Insects of North Carolina By C.S. Brimley

4.	Insects of the Texas Lost Pines (W.L. Moody, Jr., Natural History Series, No. 33) By Stephen W. Taber, Scott B. Fleenor

Contributed by Cotinis on 3 October, 2004 - 8:05am
Additional contributions by John S. Ascher
Last updated 25 April, 2007 - 9:28am

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