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Ceratina

( Bee Genera )

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Ceratina Cockerell Friese Smith

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The cosmopolitan bee genus Ceratina, often referred to as small carpenter bees, Small Carpenter Bee – Ceratina sp. Red Planet Inc. is the sole lineage of the tribe Ceratinini, and is not closely related to the more familiar . The genus presently contains over 300 species in 23 subgenera. DiscoverLife Ceratina They make nests in dead wood, stems, or pith. Although they were considered as mostly solitary in the past, there is growing evidence that many species are facultatively eusocial.Mikát, M., Fraňková, T., Benda, D., Straka, J., 2022. Evidence of sociality in European small carpenter bees ( Ceratina /ref>

Ceratina are commonly dark, shining, even metallic bees, with fairly sparse body hairs and a weak scopa on the hind tibia. Most species have some yellow markings, most often restricted to the face, but often elsewhere on the body. They are very commonly mistaken for "sweat bees" (family Halictidae), due to their small size, metallic coloration, and some similarity in wing venation; they can be easily separated from halictids by the mouthparts (with a long glossa) and the hindwings (with a tiny jugal lobe). Small carpenter bees, Ceratina spp. Featured Creatures. University of Florida IFAS. Publication EENY-101, Revised June, 2014.

Behaviour

There can be multiple females in a single nest, where daughters or sisters may form very small, weakly eusocial colonies (where one bee forages and the other remains in the nest and lays eggs). A well-studied facultatively eusocial species is Ceratina australensis, which exhibits all of the pre-adaptations for successful group living. This species is socially polymorphic with both solitary and social nests collected in sympatry. Social colonies in that species consist of two foundresses, one contributing both foraging and reproductive effort and a second that remains at the nest as a passive guard. Cooperative nesting provides no overt reproductive benefits over solitary nesting in this population, although brood survival tends to be greater in social colonies. Maternal longevity, subsociality and bivoltine nesting phenology in this species favour colony formation, while dispersal habits and offspring longevity may inhibit more frequent social nesting in this and other ceratinines.Rehan, S., Richards, M., & Schwarz, M. (2010). Social polymorphism in the Australian small carpenter bee, Ceratina ( Neoceratina) australensis. Insectes Sociaux, 4(57), 403-412.

In Ceratina nigrolabiata, a Mediterranean species, males may guard the opening to the nest of a female they hope to mate with, and are often not the father of the brood within the nest; this is the first bee species in which male nest-guarding has been classified as a form of biparental care, but males guarding nests and mating with females has been documented in other species (e.g., Macrotera portalis).

A few species of Ceratina are exceptional among bees in that they are parthenogenesis, reproducing without males. Parthenogenetic reproduction was genetically confirmed in Ceratina dallatorreana and it is presumed also in Ceratina parvula and Ceratina dentipes. Mikát M, Straka J (2023) Genetic evidence for parthenogenesis in the small carpenter bee Ceratina dallatoreana doi.org/10.3897/jhr.95.87165