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Ceratina

{{Short description|Genus of bees}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| fossil_range = {{fossil_range|37|0}}

| image = Ceratina bifida female 1.jpg

| image_caption = Ceratina bifida

| taxon = Ceratina

| authority = Latreille, 1802

| subdivision_ranks = Species

| subdivision = >200 species

}}

The cosmopolitan bee genus Ceratina, often referred to as small carpenter bees,[http://www.cirrusimage.com/bees_small_carpenter.htm Small Carpenter Bee – Ceratina sp.] Red Planet Inc. is the sole lineage of the tribe Ceratinini, and is not closely related to the more familiar carpenter bees. The genus presently contains over 300 species in 23 subgenera.[https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?search=Ceratina DiscoverLife Ceratina] They make nests in dead wood, stems, or pith. Although they were considered as solitary in past, there is growing evidence that most of species is facultatively eusocial.Mikát, M., Fraňková, T., Benda, D., Straka, J., 2022. Evidence of sociality in European small Carpenter bees (Ceratina). Apidologie 53, 18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592-022-00931-8. There can be multiple females are found in a single nest, daughters or sisters may form very small, weakly eusocial colonies (where one bee forages and the other remains in the nest and lays eggs). Well studied facultatively eusocial species is, Ceratina australensis, which exhibits all of the pre-adaptations for successful group living. This species is socially polymorphic with both solitary and social nests collected in sympatry. Social colonies in that species consist of two foundresses, one contributing both foraging and reproductive effort and the second which remains at the nest as a passive guard. Cooperative nesting provides no overt reproductive benefits over solitary nesting in this population, although brood survival tends to be greater in social colonies. Maternal longevity, subsociality and bivoltine nesting phenology in this species favour colony formation, while dispersal habits and offspring longevity may inhibit more frequent social nesting in this and other ceratinines.Rehan, S., Richards, M., & Schwarz, M. (2010). [http://sandrarehan.com/PDF/Rehan%20et%20al%202010%20Ins%20Soc%20-%20Ceratina%20australensis%20reproductive%20hierarchies.pdf Social polymorphism in the Australian small carpenter bee, Ceratina (Neoceratina) australensis.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307032241/http://sandrarehan.com/PDF/Rehan%20et%20al%202010%20Ins%20Soc%20-%20Ceratina%20australensis%20reproductive%20hierarchies.pdf |date=2016-03-07 }} Insectes Sociaux, 4(57), 403-412.

Ceratina are commonly dark, shining, even metallic bees, with fairly sparse body hairs and a weak scopa on the hind tibia. Most species have some yellow markings, most often restricted to the face, but often elsewhere on the body. They are very commonly mistaken for "sweat bees" (family Halictidae), due to their small size, metallic coloration, and some similarity in wing venation; they can be easily separated from halictids by the mouthparts (with a long glossa) and the hindwings (with a tiny jugal lobe).[http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/ceratina.htm Small carpenter bees, Ceratina spp.] Featured Creatures. University of Florida IFAS. Publication EENY-101, Revised June, 2014.

In Ceratina nigrolabiata, a Mediterranean species, males may guard the opening to the nest of a female they hope to mate with, and are often not the father of the brood within the nest; this is the first bee species in which male nest-guarding has been classified as a form of biparental care,{{cite journal |title=Polyandrous bee provides extended offspring care biparentally as an alternative to monandry based eusociality |bibcode=2019PNAS..116.6238M |last1=Mikát |first1=Michael |last2=Janošík |first2=Lukáš |last3=Černá |first3=Kateřina |last4=Matoušková |first4=Eva |last5=Hadrava |first5=Jiří |last6=Bureš |first6=Vít |last7=Straka |first7=Jakub |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |date=2019 |volume=116 |issue=13 |pages=6238–6243 |doi=10.1073/pnas.1810092116 |doi-access=free |pmid=30858313 |pmc=6442561 }} but males guarding nests and mating with females has been documented in other species (e.g., Macrotera portalis{{cite journal |author=Bryan Danforth |title=The morphology and behavior of dimorphic males in Macrotera portalis (Hymenoptera : Andrenidae) |journal=Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=235–pp 247 |year=1991 |doi=10.1007/bf00163980|s2cid=37651908 }}).

A few species of Ceratina are exceptional among bees in that they are parthenogenetic, reproducing without males. {{Cite journal|last=Daly|first=Howell V.|date=1966-11-01|title=Biological Studies on Ceratina dallatorreana, an Alien Bee in California Which Reproduces by Parthenogenesis (Hymenoptera: Apoidea)|url=https://academic.oup.com/aesa/article/59/6/1138/98238|journal=Annals of the Entomological Society of America|language=en|volume=59|issue=6|pages=1138–1154|doi=10.1093/aesa/59.6.1138|issn=0013-8746}} Parthenogenetic reproduction was genetically confirmed in Ceratina dallatoreana and it is supposed also in Ceratina parvula and Ceratina dentipes. Mikát M, Straka J (2023) Genetic evidence for parthenogenesis in the small carpenter bee Ceratina dallatoreana (Apidae, Ceratinini) in its native distribution range. J Hymenopt Res 95:199–213. https:// doi.org/10.3897/jhr.95.87165

Typical interior structure of a small carpenter bee's nest, here built into a dry stem of [[fennel. The stem cavity is partitioned into cells, each one containing pollen bread and one offspring. In the lowermost cell (on the right), the larva has already hatched. The other two cells still contain eggs.|thumb|right]]

File:Ceratina chalcites female 3.jpg]]

File:Ceratina-smaragdula,male,-face 2012-06-13-16.37.19-ZS-PMax (7376067034).jpg]]

File:Male Ceratina bee.webm.]]

Species

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References

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{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Ceratina Guide to the Ceratina of Eastern North America.] USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center.

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Category:Bee genera