Passionflower Bee facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Passionflower Bee |
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The passionflower bee (scientific name: Anthemurgus passiflorae) is a small, black bee, usually about 7.5 to 8.5 millimeters long. You can find these bees in parts of the United States, from central Texas all the way to North Carolina, and as far north as Illinois.
Unlike many bees that live in big colonies, the passionflower bee is a solitary bee. This means each female bee builds her own nest and raises her young by herself. She collects nectar and pollen to feed her larvae, which grow inside nests she builds in the ground. She uses a method called mass provisioning, which means she gathers all the food her young will need before they hatch.
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What Makes This Bee Special?
The passionflower bee is quite unique for a couple of reasons.
A Picky Eater: Specializing in One Plant
First, this bee is very particular about its food! It only collects pollen from one specific plant: the yellow passionflower (Passiflora lutea). This kind of extreme pickiness, where an animal relies on just one type of plant for food, is called oligolecty. It's like only eating pizza for every meal!
A Pollinator That Doesn't Pollinate
Second, even though the passionflower bee collects pollen from the yellow passionflower, it usually doesn't help pollinate the plant. Pollination is when pollen moves from one part of a flower to another, or to a different flower, helping the plant make seeds.
Here's how the female bee collects pollen: She hangs upside down from a part of the flower called an anther (where pollen is made). Then, she scrapes the pollen out using her mouthparts. Because of this unique way of collecting pollen, she rarely touches the stigma, which is the part of the flower that needs to receive pollen for pollination to happen. So, even though she visits the flower, she doesn't help it reproduce.
About the Anthemurgus Genus
The passionflower bee is the only known species in its group, or genus, called Anthemurgus. This means it's a monotypic taxon, like being the only member of a very exclusive club! Some scientists, however, think that Anthemurgus might actually be a smaller group within a larger genus called Pseudopanurgus.
