Apoidea
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox The superfamily Apoidea is a major group (of over 30 000 species) within the Hymenoptera, which includes two traditionally recognized lineages, the "sphecoid" wasps, and the bees. Molecular phylogeny demonstrates that the bees arose from within the traditional "Crabronidae", so that grouping is paraphyletic, and this has led to a reclassification to produce monophyletic families.<ref name="Sannetal">Manuela Sann, Oliver Niehuis, Ralph S. Peters, Christoph Mayer, Alexey Kozlov, Lars Podsiadlowski, Sarah Bank, Karen Meusemann, Bernhard Misof, Christoph Bleidorn and Michael Ohl (2018) Phylogenomic analysis of Apoidea sheds new light on the sister group of bees. BMC Evolutionary Biology 18:71. doi:10.1186/s12862-018-1155-8</ref>
Diagnostic featuresEdit
Apoid wasps and bees have several traits in common:<ref name=O'Neill2008>O'Neill, K.M. (2008). Apoid Wasps (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Spheciformes). In: Capinera, J.L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Entomology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6359-6_10300 </ref>
- The posterior (back) edge of the pronotum (pronotal lobe) is separated from the tegula
- In dorsal view (from above), the pronotum is short and broadly U-shaped;
- In dorsal view, a “propodeal triangle” at the posterior of the mesonotum;
- The hind basitarsus is longer than the other tarsomeres of the hind leg.
NomenclatureEdit
Bees appear in recent classifications to be a specialized lineage of "crabronid" wasps that switched to the use of pollen and nectar as larval food, rather than insect prey; this makes the traditional "Crabronidae" a paraphyletic group. Accordingly, bees and sphecoids are now all grouped together in a single superfamily, and the older available name is "Apoidea" rather than "Sphecoidea" (which, like Spheciformes, has been used in the past, but also defined a paraphyletic group and has been abandoned).Template:Citation needed
As bees (not including their wasp ancestors) are still considered a monophyletic group, they are given a grouping between superfamily and family to unify all bees, Anthophila.<ref>Engel, M.S. (2005). Family-group names for bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). American Museum Novitates 3476: 1–33. </ref>
PhylogenyEdit
Template:Cladogram This phylogenetic tree is based on Sann et al., 2018, which used phylogenomics to demonstrate that both the bees (Anthophila) and the Sphecidae arose from within the former "Crabronidae," which is therefore paraphyletic, and which they suggested should be split into several families; the former family Heterogynaidae nests in Nyssonini within the Bembicidae, as defined by these authors.<ref name="Sannetal"/> These findings differ in several detailsTemplate:Specify from studies published by two other sets of authors in 2017, though all three studies demonstrate a paraphyletic "Crabronidae."<ref name="BranstetterDanforth2017">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=Peters>Template:Cite journal</ref>
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Template:Cite book
- Michener, C.D. (2000). The Bees of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press.
External linksEdit
- All Living Things Images, identification guides, and maps of Apoidea.
- Solitary Bees Popular introduction to the Hymenoptera Apoidea.
- Fiori e Api d'Albore and Intoppa Flower visiting bees in Europe pdf. In Italian but excellent table with Latin names.
- Native Bees of North America