Persistent Size and Behavioral Variation among Males of the Large Carpenter Bee, Xylocopa virginica (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

摘要

A previous study of the large carpenter bee, Xylocopa virginica (L.), documented significant differences in size between territorial and foraging males in an area of high female nesting activity in central Oklahoma. Males also returned to the same hover (territorial) spaces around the nesting site and the frequency of male-male and male-female interactions increased near the nesting site. The current study shows that the aforementioned patterns persist in the population between years and that the presence of females (not nesting substrates) most strongly influences male fidelity to nesting sites. This conclusion is supported by continued high male return rates in the field during the second year. We also found that the presence of females within flight cages containing territorial males directly influences male behavior around artificial nesting substrates; males spent more time hovering near substrates with a female present than when a female was absent.