All species range from entirely to at least partially metallic (the face and/or tegulae), though much of the body in some species may be brown/black in color and hairy.
At least one species in this genus, Eufriesea purpurata from Brazil, has been shown to deliberately collect large quantities of the insecticideDDT without any apparent adverse effects.[3] Individual bees were observed to collect as much as 2 mg, which is equivalent to several percent of the bee's weight. Bees were observed to return to the walls of houses that had been recently sprayed with DDT and to collect the dried insecticide. The males of orchid bees are known to collect aromatic fragrances from certain kinds of orchids, and it is thought that they use these in territorial display and courtship, probably as precursors of their own pheromones. Some orchid bees have also been found to collect fragrances from rotten wood.
^Gonzalez VH, Griswold T, Simões M (2017) On the identity of the adventive species of Eufriesea Cockerell in the USA: systematics and potential distribution of the coerulescens species group (Hymenoptera, Apidae). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 55: 55-102. https://doi.org/10.3897/jhr.55.12209
^Roberts, Donald R.; Alecrim, Wilson D.; Heller, Jack M.; Ehrhardt, Susan R.; Lima, Jose B. (6 May 1982). "Male Eufriesia purpurata, a DDT-collecting euglossine bee in Brazil". Nature. 297 (5861): 62–63. Bibcode:1982Natur.297...62R. doi:10.1038/297062a0. S2CID4257709.
Further reading
Whitten, W. Mark; Young, Allen M. & Stern, David L. (1993): Nonfloral sources of chemicals that attract male euglossine bees (Apidae: Euglossini). Journal of Chemical Ecology19(12): 1573–1561. doi:10.1007/BF00980599
Cameron, Sydney A. (2004): Phylogeny and Biology of Neotropical Orchid Bees (Euglossini). Annual Review of Entomology49: 377–404. doi:10.1146/annurev.ento.49.072103.115855
Roubik, D. W. (1989): Ecology and natural history of tropical bees. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Vetter, Walter & Roberts, Donald (2007): Revisiting the organohalogens associated with 1979-samples of Brazilian bees (Eufriesea purpurata). Science of the Total Environment377: 371–377. doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.02.009
External links
David Roubik (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute): Diagnostic photographs of several Eufriesea species: