12-560: Apidae is the largest family within the superfamily Apoidea , containing at least 5700 species of bees . The family includes some of the most commonly seen bees, including bumblebees and honey bees , but also includes stingless bees (also used for honey production), carpenter bees , orchid bees , cuckoo bees , and a number of other less widely known groups. Many are valuable pollinators in natural habitats and for agricultural crops . In addition to its historical classification (honey bees, bumble bees, stingless bees and orchid bees),
24-501: A monophyletic group, they are given a grouping between superfamily and family to unify all bees, Anthophila. Chrysidoidea (cuckoo wasps and allies) Vespoidea (potter wasps, paper wasps, and others) Sierolomorphidae (sierolomorphid wasps) Tiphiidae (tiphiid wasps) Thynnoidea (thynnid wasps and others) Pompiloidea (spider wasps, velvet ants, and others) Scolioidea (scoliid wasps) Formicoidea (ants) Apoidea (spheciform wasps and bees) This phylogenetic tree
36-480: A paraphyletic "Crabronidae." Ampulicidae (Cockroach wasps) [REDACTED] Astatidae [REDACTED] Bembicidae [REDACTED] Sphecidae ( sensu stricto ) [REDACTED] Crabronidae ( sensu stricto ) [REDACTED] Mellinidae [REDACTED] Pemphredonidae [REDACTED] Philanthidae [REDACTED] Psenidae [REDACTED] Ammoplanidae Anthophila (bees) [REDACTED] This Apoidea -related article
48-497: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Chrysidoidea The superfamily Chrysidoidea is a very large cosmopolitan group, all of which are parasitoids or cleptoparasites of other insects. There are three large, common families ( Bethylidae , Chrysididae , and Dryinidae ) and four small, rare families ( Embolemidae , Plumariidae , Sclerogibbidae , and Scolebythidae ). Most species are small (7 mm or less), almost never exceeding 15 mm. This superfamily
60-676: 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. These findings differ in several details from studies published by two other sets of authors in 2017, though all three studies demonstrate
72-524: Is traditionally considered to be the basal taxon within the Aculeata , and, as such, some species can sting, though the venom is harmless to humans. Members of the families Dryinidae and Embolemidae are the only parasitoids among the Hymenoptera to have a life cycle in which the wasp larva begins its life inside the body of the host, and then later forms a sac (called a thylacium ) that protrudes out of
84-426: 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. Bees appear in recent classifications to be a specialized lineage of "crabronid" wasps that switched to
96-429: The family Apidae presently includes all the genera formerly placed in the families Anthophoridae and Ctenoplectridae . Although the most visible members of Apidae are social, the vast majority of apid bees are solitary, including a number of kleptoparasitic species. The old family Apidae contained four tribes (Apinae: Apini , Euglossini and Bombinae: Bombini , Meliponini ) which have been reclassified as tribes of
108-466: The nests of other bees. Tribes include: The subfamily Xylocopinae , which includes carpenter bees , are mostly solitary, though they tend to be gregarious. Some tribe lineages, such as the Allodapini , contain eusocial species. Most members of this subfamily make nests in plant stems or wood. Tribes include: Apoidea Clade Anthophila The superfamily Apoidea is a major group within
120-412: The soil. However, honey bees, stingless bees, and bumblebees are eusocial or colonial. These are sometimes believed to have each developed this trait independently, and show notable differences in such characteristics as communication between workers and methods of nest construction. Tribes include: The subfamily Nomadinae , or cuckoo bees, has 31 genera in 10 tribes which are all cleptoparasites in
132-686: The subfamily Apinae , along with all of the former tribes and subfamilies of Anthophoridae and the former family Ctenoplectridae, which was demoted to tribe status. The trend to move groups down in taxonomic rank has been taken further by a 2005 Brazilian classification that places all existing bee families together under the name "Apidae", but it has not been widely accepted in the literature since that time. The subfamily Apinae contains honey bees , bumblebees , stingless bees , orchid bees , and digger bees , among others. The bees of most tribes placed in Apinae are solitary with nests that are simple burrows in
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#1732852833433144-483: 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). As bees (not including their wasp ancestors) are still considered
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