Anthophorini

Abstract: Phylogenetic relationships among and within the major groups of bees (Apoidea Apiformes) were recently reconsidered using extensive molecular and morphological datasets. The next step in the study of bee evolution will consist in estimating the antiquity of the nodes within the inferred topologies. We describe here the third oldest bee fossil, Paleohabropoda oudardi gen. n. sp. N. (Apidae, Apinae, Anthophorini) from the Paleocene of Menat (France, Puy-de-Dome; 60 Myr). Phylogenetic analysis of 17 morphological characters and morphometric analysis of the wing shape were used to recover, respectively, its taxonomic position and morphological affinities. Our results indicate that Paleohabropoda oudardi gen. n. sp. n. clearly belongs to the Anthophorini. Paleohabropoda is therefore the oldest fossil that can be confidently date and place to an extant tribe. Its wing shape is surprisingly close to the extant genus Habropoda. The discovery of Paleohabropoda oudardi gen. n., sp. n. brings further evidence for the Cretaceous diversification of major lineages of bees and for strong constancy of wing shape within the Anthophorini.

Abstract: A megilla daH'soni. Australia's largest anthophorine bee, annually produces a single generation from July to September. Females nest solitarily or more often gregariously in flat, hard, bare clay, apparently using nectar to soften the soil during excavation, Each burrow is furnished with a mud turret which is demolished when the nest is complete, Nest structure is described in detail. Larval provisions are liquid. After consuming their provisions, larvae eat the wax lining of their cells, defaecate and enter a diapause which may last for one or more years. They do not spin cocoons, Mating occurs at nesting areas and at the forage plants. Males vary conspicuously in size and exhibit a bimodal size frequency distribution. Large size appears to be an advantage to males eompeting for access to newly emerging virgin females at the nesting sites. Small males predominate amongst the 'patrollers' at forage plants. A miltogrammine fly and a mutillid wasp were observed to develop at the expense of the bees in their brood cells, The bees swarm about intruders (humans and corvids) at nesting aggregations but do not attack them. Brief observations on the nests and behaviour of a second, undescribed species of Asaropoda are also recorded, The biology of A megilla (Asaropoda) is briefly discussed and compared with that of other Anthophorini,

Abstract: Fifty-four genera of the bee family Apidae comprising almost all tribes were analysed based on 77 traditional and one new character of the mature larvae. Nine, especially cleptoparasitic species, were newly added. Analyses were per- formed by maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. Trees inferred from the analysis of the complete dataset were rooted by taxa from the families Melittidae and Megachilidae. Unrooted trees inferred from the analysis of the partial dataset (excluding outgroup taxa) are also presented to preclude possible negative effects of the outgroup on the topology of the ingroup. Only the subfamily Nomadinae was statistically well supported. The monophyly of the subfamilies Xylocopinae and Apinae was not topologically recovered. The monophyly of the tribe Tetrapediini was supported, and this tribe was found to be related to xylocopine taxa. At the very least, larval morphology suggests that Tetrapedia is not a member of the subfamily Apinae. Our analyses support the monophyly of the Eucerine line (Emphorini, Eucerini, Exomalopsini, Tapinotaspidini) and of the Apine line (Anthophorini, Apini, Bombini, Centridini, Euglossini, Meliponini). All analyses support the monophyly of totally cleptoparasitic tribes of the subfamily Apinae. We named this group the Melectine line (Ericrocidini, Isepeolini, Melectini, Osirini, Protepeolini, Rhathymini). In previous studies all these cleptoparasitic tribes were considered independent evolutionary lineages. Our results suggest that their similarities with hosts in morphology and pattern are probably the result of convergence and host-parasite co-evolution than phylogenetic affinity. According to the present analysis, the cleptoparasitism has evolved independently only six times within the family Apidae.

Abstract: New taxa of Apoidea (Apidae and Halictidae) described from the Oligocene of France and Turkey are Oligoapis beskonakensis gen. nov. and sp. nov.; Paraelectrobombus patriciae gen. nov. and sp. nov.; Xylocopa celineae sp. nov.; and Lasioglossum celinae sp. nov. The Paleocene Probombus hirsutus is transferred into the Megachilidae, and the Oligocene Anthophorites gaudryi (Anthophorini) is considered an Insecta incertae sedis. These discoveries support Engel's (2001c) hypothesis concerning the high diversity of bees during the Palaeogene in Western Europe.