Ethological study of African carpenter bees of the genus Xylocopa (Hymenoptera, Anthophoridae).

Over 200 bees of 4 African Xylocopa species were observed for 3 months on the island of Rubondo (L. Victoria, Tanzania). Some 40 burrows were investigated, 100 bees marked. Building techniques are minutely reported; burrow construction simplifies defence and allows re-use by succeeding generations. Food plants, collecting, provisioning and all aspects of ontogenesis are treated, insight given into pupal leg mobility and the much-debated emergence order after eclosion: the first-hatched bee, in the rearmost cell, prepares the way for siblings. Copulation and the copulatory hold are studied using tethered femalefemale, and illustrated. A few colonization experiments are described and s spectrogram of begging sounds given. Meeting of the generations, feeding of the young and nest-defence by young siblings throw light on the evolution of primitively eusocial communities. The known literature is reviewed in each chapter.