Halictus ligatus facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Halictus ligatus
Scientific classification

Halictus ligatus is a type of sweat bee. These bees are known for digging nests in the ground. They are also a "primitively eusocial" species. This means they live in groups with a queen and workers. In these groups, the queen lays most of the eggs. Workers help out, and different generations live together.

About Halictus ligatus

Halictus ligatus was first described in 1837. The name Halictus refers to a group of sweat bees. They belong to the family Halictidae and the order Hymenoptera. These bees are known for their social behavior and for nesting underground.

The Halictidae family is special because its members show many different social behaviors. Some bees live alone, while others live in groups. Some are even parasites. H. ligatus shows a simple form of social living.

How to Spot Halictus ligatus

H. ligatus bees look a lot like other Halictus bees. You can tell them apart from their close relatives, Lasioglossum bees. H. ligatus has pale, fuzzy bands on the back edges of their bodies.

These bees are mostly black or dark brown. They do not have the shiny metallic colors seen in some other sweat bees. Halictus bees are also generally larger than bees from the Seladonia group, which are usually smaller than 7 millimeters.

Differences Between Female Bees

Female H. ligatus bees look different depending on their job in the colony. Queens, also called foundresses, are usually larger. They need to be big to store energy. This helps them survive winter, start new nests, and lay eggs on their own.

Helper bees, or workers, are usually smaller daughters. Their ovaries are not as developed. This means they are less likely to lay their own eggs.

Where Halictus ligatus Lives

Halictus ligatus on a thistle flower in California

Halictus ligatus is a very common bee in North America. You can find them in many different places. They live from about 50 degrees north latitude all the way south to the West Indies and Colombia.

They are found in temperate areas, from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts. This includes the southern Gulf of Mexico and southern Canada. Because they live in so many different places, their behavior can change. Their colony cycles and sizes also vary depending on the local environment.

Bee Nests

H. ligatus usually builds nests in flat, dry, hard-packed soil. They prefer areas without much plant growth. So, you often find their nests in dirt roads and paths.

These bees tend to build their nests close together. This can be helpful because they can work together to scare away parasites. However, it can also be a disadvantage. Predators and parasites can find many nests in one spot more easily.

Starting a New Nest

H. ligatus bees often use the same nest site year after year. They will keep using it until it gets too crowded with plants, parasites, or diseases. Queens that have survived the winter often prefer to fix up old nests rather than build new ones.

Bees that nest in old sites or old nests tend to have more offspring. This means that using old sites is a good strategy for them. But if a disaster destroys their old nesting site, they will have to find a new one.

How Nests are Built

H. ligatus nests can be found in rotting wood or in the ground. Ground nests can be set up in different ways. They might have small cells, scattered cells, or clusters of cells. This depends on the size of the bee colony.

Nests inside rotting wood are usually oddly shaped. This is because they have to fit into the wood. The area around the cells is usually open. The cells themselves are lined with a waxy substance. This wax helps protect the young bees as they grow.

Life Cycle of Halictus ligatus

In northern temperate regions, H. ligatus has a yearly life cycle. This is similar to most other social sweat bees. The cold winter means several months of no activity. Only young queens, called gynes, survive this period.

In spring, these gynes start new nests. They produce workers during the summer. Then, in late summer and autumn, they switch to producing males and new gynes. These new gynes will survive the winter and become queens themselves next spring. So, samples taken late in the year will have more males and young gynes.

However, in southern Florida, H. ligatus bees are active all year. They have overlapping colony cycles that last a few months. They might take a break if there is a very dry season. In this region, the difference between queens and workers is less clear.

Bee Behavior

Who's in Charge: Dominance Hierarchy

The behavior of H. ligatus bees can change depending on where they live. Studies show that yearly weather changes affect the bee colonies. This also changes how adult females interact with each other.

For example, too much rain can lead to fewer workers and more queen-controlled egg-laying. Good weather, like warm temperatures, means more workers are produced. In good conditions, workers lay more eggs. These environmental differences can also affect colony size and how social the bees are. In warmer southern areas with long nesting seasons, queens have less control over workers. This is because there are many workers per nest. In northern areas with shorter seasons, queens have more control because there are fewer workers.

Sharing the Work: Division of Labor

Female Bee Roles

Female H. ligatus bees have different jobs. Some act like queens, and others act like workers. Most nests started in the spring are by a single queen. But about 12% of nests are started by 2 to 6 queens working together.

In these multi-queen nests, one queen acts like the main queen. The others act more like mid-summer workers. A female bee's job depends on several things when she hatches. These include the social setup of the nest, her body size, her fat stores, and the time of year.

For example, small females with little fat that hatch in mid-summer often become workers. They help their mothers raise the next group of bees. But large females with lots of fat that hatch in late summer are meant to mate. They will become queens of their own nests the next spring.

What the Queen Does

In nests with a single queen, she digs the nest and gathers food for the first young bees in spring. After workers hatch in mid-summer, the queen stops foraging. Instead, she oversees the workers in the colony.

In nests with multiple queens, the helper queens continue to gather food. Their role is more like a worker bee than a queen.

What the Worker Does

H. ligatus worker bees show different levels of social behavior. This depends on the environment. In harsh conditions, they show more typical eusocial behavior. This means workers focus on helping the queen raise her offspring. They tend to eggs, clean the nest, and find food and water.

In gentler conditions, there is less social behavior. Workers might focus more on raising their own offspring, including new gynes.

Aggression Among Bees

H. ligatus is a primitively eusocial species. This means the queen uses aggressive behavior to stop female workers from laying eggs. Aggression is most common from the queen. But other bees might also be aggressive, especially in larger nests.

The queen uses special chemicals and aggressive actions to make sure she is the only one laying eggs. In nests with multiple queens, one queen will become the main egg-layer and a guard. The other queens will become foragers. The guard bee protects the nest from intruders. She might take a C-shape, pointing her head and stinger at a threat. Bees from the same nest are allowed in based on how familiar they are, their age, and their smell.

If a queen dies when the nest is still very active, a new queen will be chosen from the workers. This new queen will start acting like the old one. If the climate is harsh or the breeding season is short, some bees might become solitary. This helps them adapt to different environments.

Nest Defense

In the rare cases where a nest has more than one queen, one bee becomes the "guard." These guards are usually the queens who lay most of the eggs. Other bees in the nest go out to find food. Nests with only one queen are left unguarded when she goes foraging.

This can lead to fights over nest ownership. These fights can be short, lasting only a few seconds. Or they can be long, lasting up to 26 minutes. During a fight, the guard bee blocks the nest entrance with her body. She pushes the intruder out. Sometimes, they even bite, which can cause serious injuries.

Feeding the Young Bees

The size of a female bee's body is linked to her job in the colony. This means that what a larva eats is very important. It affects whether she becomes a queen or a worker. Mother bees sometimes limit the food they give their offspring. This makes the young bees smaller and leaner.

This behavior helps ensure these daughters become helpers. They are not strong enough to reproduce on their own. Smaller bees are also easier for the queen to control through dominance and aggression.

Worker-Queen Conflicts

In established nests, workers might try to lay their own eggs. They can compete with the queen and with each other. Many workers do not lay eggs and instead help raise the queen's offspring. However, about half of H. ligatus workers are able to lay eggs. They can raise their own young in addition to the queen's.

Life History and Development

The development time for H. ligatus is similar to other Halictus species. It takes about 36 days for an egg to become an adult in spring. This is when soil temperatures are low. In summer, it only takes about 28 days because the soil is warmer.

The life cycle of H. ligatus has two main stages: overwintering and active. Nests, which are in burrows or rotting wood, become active from late April to early June. Bees will not leave their winter burrows until late June. During winter, they go into a state called hibernal diapause. This is a period of no growth or feeding for larvae. Adults stop mating and reproducing.

Nests are usually started by a single female bee, called a foundress. She mated and laid eggs the previous spring. Sometimes, multiple bees start a nest together. The foundress gathers food for several weeks in early June. This food is for the first group of young bees. This first group is mostly small females, who become workers, and a few males.

Once the workers hatch, they start to forage. They will produce their own group of young bees, both males and females. The females in this group are called gynes. These gynes will survive the winter and become foundresses the next spring. After they hatch, they mate and dig a tunnel below their old nest to spend the winter.

H. ligatus bees are "mass provisioners." This means they build a mass of pollen and nectar. This mass is the only food source for the growing larva. The larva will not turn into a pupa until it has eaten all the pollen.

Daughters from the first group of young bees can become non-reproductive helpers. They might forage or stay in their home nest to help the queen. Or they might reproduce in their home nest, find other nests to reproduce in, or go into diapause early to become a foundress next spring. In larger colonies, queens usually lay the eggs that become males. Workers usually lay the eggs that become gynes.

What Halictus ligatus Eats

Pollen is a very important food for bees. Different pollens have different amounts of nutrients. For H. ligatus, which eats many types of pollen, the size of their offspring grows as the protein content of the pollen increases. This means they need less high-protein pollen to produce a bee of a certain size. However, the size of the pollen masses they carry does not change with the pollen type. This suggests that foragers cannot tell the difference in protein content.

Pollination by Bees

H. ligatus bees are generalist pollinators. This means they pollinate many different types of plants. They collect a lot of pollen for their nests. But they also pollinate many plant flowers while gathering what they need.

How Bees Carry Pollen

The amount of food a bee can carry on one trip varies among different bee species. H. ligatus carries pollen externally and dry. They do not carry it inside their bodies or mix it with nectar. This way of carrying pollen allows them to load it faster because they do not need to add nectar.

How Environment Affects Halictus ligatus

Weather patterns and other environmental factors affect how H. ligatus bees develop. Changes in weather can cause big differences in the body size of all bees in a colony. H. ligatus bees are ectothermic. This means their body temperature depends on their surroundings. So, food availability and temperature greatly affect their development and body size.

At higher temperatures, ectothermic insects develop faster. They move through their larval stages more quickly. This means they spend less time eating as young bees. Because of this, they will be smaller when they become adults compared to bees who had more time to eat when they were young.