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| Notes - Anthophora plumipes |
1. The possible purpose of the hairy mid legs of male Anthophora
plumipes
From the BWARS Forum - 29 April 2006:
I came across a female A plumipes today.
It flew in to a patch of Pulmonaria flowers, where males have been
patrolling for some time. After landing it became very quiet and gripped the
flower it landed on with it's mandibles. I was able to pick up the flower
and photograph it, fully expecting it to fly off at any time. It did not. I
replaced the female on to the main plant and it stayed there, clinging to
its flower. The sun came out and it became much warmer, but the bee still
did not move, appearing to be quite moribund. With the sun, came a male, who
hovered behind her and did the usual quick dart toward the female, landing
on her and quickly appearing to be repelled. This happened a few times,
during which time a second, then a third male arrived. They all hovered
behind her, almost taking turns to dart at her and getting rejected.
Eventually, one of them decided to try harder and grappled quiet hard with
the female, but she again rejected the advance. At the next attempt though
he was able to remain with her and appeared to copulate. Whilst this
happened the other two males continued to dart at the mating female and
male, but quickly darted away after each attempt. The copulating male kept
his long-haired mid legs held up above himself as he mated. I wonder if this
is a method for keeping at bay other males, as he mates? The copulation
ended after about a minute at most and the female quickly took off and
started to feed from flowers, not appearing at all moribund any longer. She
had no signs of pollen on her hind tibia, so I assume she was ready for
mating and was not rejecting advances, because she was already
fertilised. Interestingly, I rarely see more than two males patrolling
the patch of Pulmonaria, but the three males appeared quite quickly, once
the sun came out.
Above: Male A plumipes with mid legs raised, possibly to fend off other
attendant males.
Photograph showing wider view of this scene > here
Nigel Jones
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