Anthidium manicatum

A. manicatum males use resource defense to secure mating opportunities (Haas 1960; Pechuman 1967; Severinghaus et al. 1981; Starks and Reeve 1999). Within a defended floral territory, males discourage foraging by heterospecific pollinators through direct attacks that often result in severe injury or death to the encroaching pollinator (Wirtz et al. 1988). Well defended territories are more attractive to foraging female A. manicatum and allow male A. manicatum to secure more mating opportunities (Starks and Reeve 1999). Heterospecific injuries are most commonly sustained during aerial altercations where male A. manicatum can fracture the wings of other pollinators (Wirtz et al. 1988). A. manicatum attacks are relatively indiscriminate (Severinghaus et al. 1981), but the most commonly attacked heterospecifics are bumble bees (Bombus spp.) and honey bees (Apis mellifera) (Severinghaus et al. 1981; Wirtz et al. 1988; Soper and Beggs 2013). (GRAHAM et al., 2018) Anthidium manicatum showed a low and moderate bioclimatic niche overlap with two native species, Anthidium sertanicola Moure & Urban and Anthidium latum Schrottky, respectively. These data provide relevant information on the biology and status of A. manicatum in Brazil. However, since most Brazilian scientific collections have not digitalized their data in the platforms consulted here, some ecological features described here may be underestimated. (DOS SANTOS et al., 2020)