Species Account for Stelis breviuscula
Stelis breviuscula (Nylander, 1848)
a cuckoo bee
Aculeata: Megachilinae
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Taxonomic group: bees and wasps (Aculeata) - County data
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Status: RDB K
Saproxylic species
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Recorded from 2 out of 57x10km.sq. records in county
Species text
All four British Stelis species are rare bees. Stelis breviuscula is a fairly recent addition to the British list, with a fresh male collected from a ragwort flowers near Midhurst, West Sussex, in 1984. However it is considered to be an indigenous species in view of its obligate association as a cleptoparasite of Heriades truncorum. The host nests in burrows in dead wood and occasionally crumbling masonry. S. breviuscula has been recorded visiting flowers of bramble Rubus, sheep`s-bit Jasione montana, yarrow Achillea millefolium, mouse-ear hawkweed Hieracium pilosella and dandelion Taraxacum. At Fobbing Marshes a single male was collected new to Essex with Heriades truncorum at old fence postsin 2005. References
Habitats
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