Orange-legged furrow bee, Halictus rubicundus, a striped sweat bee with orange hind legs on a yellow flower

Halictus rubicundus, the orange-legged furrow bee. Reinhold Moller (Ermell), CC BY-SA 4.0, 위키미디어 공용에서.

Halictus rubicundus | 땀벌 고랑벌 Socially variable 땅에 둥지를 트는

영국의 벌 종류

주황색 다리를 가진 고랑벌 (Halictus rubicundus)

Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791) · family Halictidae

The orange-legged furrow bee is a small, ground-nesting sweat bee with a remarkable trick: in the warm south it lives socially, with a queen and workers, but in the cool north the very same species nests alone. That flexibility has made it one of the most studied bees in the world for understanding how social life evolves. Look for it on bare, sunny banks from spring to autumn. Place it among Britain's bees on the 영국 토종 벌 종 분포 지도, 혹은 전 세계의 꿀벌들 중에서 세계 꿀벌 지도집.

한눈에 보는 정보

일반명Orange-legged furrow bee

학명Halictus rubicundus

권한Christ, 1791

가족할릭티과 (땀벌과)

영국의 지위Widespread and frequent

크기About 1 cm long

라이프스타일Social in south, solitary in north

활성4월부터 10월까지

중첩In bare ground, often south-facing

주요 기능Reddish-orange hind legs

Favourite flowersDaisies and composites

범위One of the world's widest of any bee

킹덤	동물계
문	절지동물
수업	곤충문
주문	막시류
가족	할릭티과
속	할릭투스
종	Halictus rubicundus

A sweat bee with orange legs

The orange-legged furrow bee is a member of the Halictidae, the sweat bees, so named because some are drawn to perspiration on warm days. Furrow bees take their name from a fine groove down the tip of the female's abdomen.^[1] This is a fairly small bee, around a centimetre long, dark brown rather than metallic, with neat pale hair bands across the hind margins of the abdominal segments and, as the name promises, reddish-orange hind legs.^[2] Fresh females show a reddish-brown pile on top of the thorax.

One bee, two ways of living

In the warmer south of its range the orange-legged furrow bee is eusocial, with a foundress queen and a brood of workers. In the cooler north the same species nests solitarily, each female working alone. This switch makes it a living model for how social behaviour evolves.^[4]

How to identify the orange-legged furrow bee

Look for a small, striped, brownish bee with thin pale bands at the rear edges of the abdominal segments and rusty-orange hind legs.^[2] Females are most easily confused with the larger furrow bee Lasioglossum xanthopum, but on that species the pale bands sit at the front of each segment rather than the rear.^[1] Males are slimmer, with longer antennae and yellow markings on the face and legs; they can be separated from the very rare Halictus eurygnathus by their entirely dark antennae.^[1] As with most small solitary bees, certain identification can require a close look at a specimen.

The legs give it away: a small, striped, ground-nesting bee with reddish-orange hind legs, dipping in and out of daisy flowers on a sunny bank.

1cm

At only about a centimetre long, the orange-legged furrow bee is easy to overlook, yet it has one of the widest natural ranges of any bee on Earth, spanning Europe, northern Asia and North America.^[2][5]

Nesting, lifecycle and society

Nests are dug in bare or sparsely vegetated ground, typically in light soils on warm, south-facing banks and slopes, either singly or in loose aggregations.^[1] In social populations a mated queen emerges from hibernation in spring and founds a nest, rears a first brood of mostly small workers, and the colony then produces males and new queens towards the end of summer.^[3] Those new queens mate, overwinter, and begin the cycle again. In solitary populations there are no workers at all; each female provisions her own cells.^[4]

Adults are on the wing from April to October. The bee visits a wide range of flowers but shows a clear preference for the daisy family, including ragworts, thistles, knapweeds, mayweeds and dandelions.^[3]

소스 충돌

Whether a population is social or solitary is not fixed by geography alone. Transplant experiments have shown that orange-legged furrow bees retain the flexibility to switch strategy with local conditions, so the simple north-equals-solitary, south-equals-social picture is a useful generalisation rather than a hard rule. There is also long-standing debate over whether a second generation is produced in some warm years.^[3][4]

그것이 중요한 이유

The orange-legged furrow bee is both a useful generalist pollinator of meadow and verge flowers and a scientific treasure. Because the same species can be social or solitary, biologists use it to test ideas about why animals live in groups at all. Practically, it needs two simple things: open, flower-rich grassland for forage, and patches of bare, sunny, well-drained ground to nest in. Leaving a south-facing bank or path edge unplanted, and letting daisies, knapweeds and dandelions flower, gives this bee exactly what it needs.

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Raw honey from flower-rich Midlands meadows, the same daisy-and-knapweed grassland furrow bees forage. Our British honey supplier holds SALSA Certification. 280g. £10.99.

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자주 묻는 질문

How do I identify an orange-legged furrow bee?

Look for a small (about 1 cm), brownish, faintly striped bee with thin pale bands at the rear edges of the abdominal segments and reddish-orange hind legs, often on bare sunny ground or daisy-family flowers. Small furrow bees can be tricky, so close views or a specimen may be needed for certainty.

What is a furrow bee or sweat bee?

Furrow bees are small to medium bees in the family Halictidae, named for a fine groove on the female's last abdominal segment. They are often called sweat bees because some are attracted to perspiration on warm days. Most nest in the ground.

Is the orange-legged furrow bee social or solitary?

Both. It is one of the few bees that can do either: eusocial, with a queen and workers, in warmer southern areas, and solitary, with each female nesting alone, in cooler northern ones. This social flexibility is why it is so widely studied.

어디에 둥지를 틀까요?

In bare or sparsely vegetated ground, usually in light, well-drained soil on warm, south-facing banks and slopes, either as single nests or in loose aggregations.

언제 활성화되나요?

Adults fly from April to October. Queens emerge in spring, workers appear through the summer in social nests, and males and new females are seen from mid to late summer into the autumn.

Do orange-legged furrow bees sting?

They can sting but are not aggressive and very rarely do so; the sting is mild. They are harmless to people going about a garden and are valuable pollinators.

어떤 꽃을 찾아다니나요?

A wide range, but especially the daisy family: ragworts, thistles, knapweeds, mayweeds and dandelions, along with other open, accessible flowers of meadows and verges.

Does the orange-legged furrow bee make honey?

No. Like nearly all wild bees it stores only small amounts of pollen and nectar to feed its own larvae, never a harvestable surplus. Only the honeybee makes honey in quantity. Compare the bee families in the 세계 꿀벌 지도집.

출처 및 참고 문헌

Falk, S. 영국과 아일랜드의 벌에 관한 현장 가이드, 블룸즈버리, 다음 작품에 대한 해설이 수록되어 있음: Halictus rubicundus (size, hair bands, separation from Lasioglossum xanthopum 그리고 Halictus eurygnathus). 스티븐 포크의 플리커 컬렉션.
BWARS (꿀벌·말벌·개미 기록 협회). 종 설명: Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791), eusocial biology, nesting and flight period. bwars.com.
NatureSpot 및 BWARS의 현장 기록에 따르면 Halictus rubicundus: habitat, forage (Asteraceae) and colony cycle.
Field, J. et al. Studies on social plasticity in Halictus rubicundus, including transplant experiments showing climate-linked switching between social and solitary nesting (University of Sussex / published research on social plasticity).
GBIF 사무국. Halictus rubicundus (Christ, 1791): Holarctic distribution and taxonomy. gbif.org.

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