Neolarra

Neolarra
Neolarra pruinosa female
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Clade:	Pancrustacea
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Subfamily:	Nomadinae
Tribe:	Neolarrini
Genus:	Neolarra Ashmead, 1890

Neolarra is a genus of cuckoo bees in the family Apidae. There are about 16 described species in Neolarra, all from North America.¹²³⁴ These bees are smaller than a grain of rice and are kleptoparasites of Perdita bees.

Smaller than a grain of rice, these bees lay eggs in the nests of Perdita bees; the Neolarra egg hatches and the larva eats the egg and food store (of pollen⁵) intended for a Perdita larva. It enters while the host bee is gone to avoid detection.⁶

It is likely that, in order to hide them from the returning Perdita bee, the eggs are inserted into the walls of brood cells (underground chambers).⁵ In order to overpower and kill the young Perdita egg or larva the Neolarra larva develops and uses a hard, sickle-shaped tooth.⁵

Neolarra was first described in 1890 by Ashmead, as a kind of wasp instead of a bee.⁷ This was corrected by Baker in 1896.⁷ The genus Phileremulus, created in 1895 when Neolarra was still considered to be a genus of wasp, was revised to be a subgenus of Neolarra by Charles Michener in 1939.⁷

These 16 species belong to the genus Neolarra:

Data sources: i = ITIS,¹ c = Catalogue of Life,² g = GBIF,³ b = Bugguide.net⁴