Piercing of nectarless Hemerocallis (Xanthorrhoeaceae) flowers by Xylocopa varipuncta and X. virginica virginica (Apidae)

By

Barrows, Edward M.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2016

Original Publication

Journal of Hymenoptera research

Volume

48

Pages

101-110

Subjects

Apis , cell-fluid consumption , flower-piercing , Hemerocallis , Xylocopa

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Washington, D.C International Society of Hymenopterists

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/JHR.48.6427

 

Abstract

The native carpenter bee Xylocopa varipuncta frequently made and re-used piercings in tubular corolla bases of nonnative, nectarless Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’ (Stella de Oro Daylily, HSDO) in the César E. Chávez Memorial Plaza in downtown Sacramento, California. The bees frequently visited HSDO flowers from mid-morning through late afternoon in August 2014 during the 3-yr, severe California drought. Their foraging bouts were up to 10 floral visits, and they were evidently obtaining cell fluid. Nonnative Apis mellifera extended their proboscides through the piercings, acting as secondary cell-fluid robbers. They also may have pollinated HSDO when they collected its pollen. Hemerocallis-flower piercing by native X. virginica virginica is apparently rare, but in the Wehawken Nature Preserve in Bethesda, Maryland, a female pierced succulent, nectarless flowers of two other Hemerocallis cultivars and three unnamed seedlings, possibly obtaining cell-fluid, learning that the flowers did not have nectar, or both during the wet summer of 2015.