木蜂的巢内行为和交配策略

In-nest ethology and mating strategies of the carpenter bees Xylocopa spp.(Hymenoptera:Apidae)

木蜂Xylocopa作为蜜蜂科的一个重要类群,用来研究昆虫社会进化早期阶段具有重要意义。本文综述了近年来木蜂的营巢习性、社会性行为和交配策略的研究进展。木蜂巢的建筑与巢内巢室的分布、巢室的大小、贮备蜂粮的效率和被寄生的敏感性等均有一定的关系。在筑巢地点,随着木蜂种群数量的增加,同种雌蜂之间的资源存在着竞争,木蜂对巢室的守卫加强,更多地表现为对同种雌蜂的守卫以及防御其他的天敌入侵。其社会多态性由独栖性向社会性演化,主要表现为独栖性、亚社会性、半社会性、共生性和准社会性等方式,甚至同一种群内会出现不同的社会性行为。在交配策略上,木蜂的雄蜂在外部形态特征上具有适应交配和寻找雌蜂的进化特征,并且具有复杂的领地行为。这些研究理论对于我们深刻理解木蜂的行为生物学具有重要意义,同时也有助于进行更深层次的社会性蜂类演化进程的探索。

Large carpenter bees （the genus Xylocopa）, as an important group of bees （Apidae）, play an important role in studying early stages of insect social evolution. This article reviewed the research progress on nesting habits, social behaviors, and mating strategies of Xylocopa. Investigations in recent years showed that nest architecture is linked to numerous life history elements including the distribution of nesting events such as constructing cells and laying brood, brood size, provisioning efficiency, and susceptibility to parasitism. Competition among conspecific females at nesting sites increases as the population becomes larger, which is reflected by more intensive guarding of nests, especially during the late spring and summer. Nest guarding is not only against conspecific females but also against other species. This insect group presents the evolution tendency from solitary to eusociality, and exhibits subsocial, communal, semisocial and eusocial forms. Xylocopa is found to be socially polymorphic with both solitary and metasocial or semisocial nests in the same population. As for mating strategies, males of carpenter bees display certain morphological characters, which are useful to attract females for mating, and also have complex territorial behavior. These findings are not only important for us to understand behavioral biology of carpenter bees, but also helpful for further exploration in the evolution process of social bees.