Tetralonia malvae

Tetralonia malvae
Mallow longhorn (Tetralonia malvae), Pfaffenhofen, Germany
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Genus:	Tetralonia
Species:	T. malvae
Binomial name
Tetralonia malvae (Rossi, 1790)
Synonyms
Tetralonia macroglossa (Illiger, 1806)

Tetralonia malvae, also known as the Mallow longhorn, is a species of insect belonging to the family Apidae. The bee takes pollen from oligolectic sources on the mallow family (Malvaceae).

Behaviour

They generally nest on bare or sparsely overgrown ground, even to heavily sloping surfaces, or in steep walls in self-dug corridors in the earth, often in aggregations. The preferred substrate is sand, loess or loess clay. The nest consists of a corridor that can branch out. The brood cells are more or less upright and are inside with a shiny layer coated. The species inhabits dry and warm locations; vineyards, fallow and ruderal areas, sand and clay pits, steep banks, from plains to the montane altitude level.

Parasitism

They are parasitised by the cuckoo bee species Triepeolus tristis. Another nest parasite is a bladder-head fly of the genus Conops.

Flight period

They can be seen in one generation from June to August.

Distribution

The species is found from Spain, across southern and central Europe, southern Russia, Asia Minor and Caucasus to Central Asia; north to Lithuania and Orenburg; south to Sicily, Crete, Syria, Iraq and Northern Iran.