New distributional records of Celonites tauricus (Hymenoptera, Vespidae, Masarinae) and new data on its behaviour at flowers

Abstract

New records of Celonites tauricus Kostylev, 1935 are reported from Chios, Rhodes, Samos (Greece), Dagestan (Russia), Georgia, and the main portion of Azerbaijan (previous records were made from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic only). Flower visits of imagines were observed at six species of Lamiaceae, four of them being recorded for the first time as forage plants of C. tauricus. The newly recorded Teucrium canum Fisch. & C.A. Mey. and Ziziphora taurica M. Bieb. (both Lamiaceae) are principal forage plants in Dagestan and the Crimea, correspondingly. The behaviour of females at flowers of Z. taurica differs from that previously described at flowers of Teucrium chamaedrys L. and Satureja thymbra L. (also Lamiaceae) in that pollen removal from the anthers and nectar uptake take place separately from each other in temporal succession. This difference is obviously caused by the flower structure of the genus Ziziphora, specifically its much longer corolla tube. Females also try to collect pollen from flowers of Salvia nemorosa subsp. tesquicola (Klokov & Pobed.) Soó but usually without success, while nectar uptake from this species is successful. The specialized morphological structures of the females for pollen-uptake from the nototribic anthers and pollen-transfer from the exoskeleton to the mouthparts are described. They are similar to those of the closely related Celonites abbreviatus (Villers, 1789), and consist of specialized stiff “knobbed” pollen-collecting setae covering the anterior surface of the head, particularly the frons and the clypeus, as well as comb-like rows of specialized, particularly strong pollen-brushing setae along the anterior margins of the inner surface of the first and the second segments of the fore tarsi. Males of C. tauricus patrol in flight along the forage plants of the females. Successful copulations occur either on flowers or on the ground.