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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps » Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees » Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees (Apidae) » Honey, Bumble, Longhorn, Orchid, and Digger Bees (Apinae) » Digger Bees (Anthophorini) » Digger Bees (Anthophora) » Subgenus Melea (Anthophora Subgenus Melea)

Subgenus Melea

Classification · Numbers · Range · Remarks · Works Cited
burrowing/ground bees - Anthophora bomboides Large Fuzzy Grey Bee - Anthophora bomboides Carpenter Bee entering mud nest?? - Anthophora abrupta fuzzy bumble bee with yellow clypeus - Anthophora bomboides Anthophora abrupta - Abrupt Digger - Anthophora abrupta Anthophora bomboides? - Anthophora American Bumblebee? - Anthophora abrupta Anthophorini - Anthophora bomboides
Classification
Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
No Taxon (Apoidea (clade Anthophila) - Bees)
Family Apidae (Cuckoo, Carpenter, Digger, Bumble, and Honey Bees)
Subfamily Apinae (Honey, Bumble, Longhorn, Orchid, and Digger Bees)
Tribe Anthophorini (Digger Bees)
Genus Anthophora (Digger Bees)
No Taxon Subgenus Melea
Numbers
3 spp. in our area, 10 spp. total(1)
Range
holarctic; in our area, A. bomboides is transcontinental and ranges into the Arctic, A. occidentalis is widespread west of the Mississippi River, and A. abrupta, mostly east of the Mississippi River, with some overlap in MO-AR; in Eurasia, one sp. is transpalaearctic + 6 spp. restricted to e. Asia(1)
Remarks
"Species of this subgenus appear to be Bombus mimics and vary geographically in hair coloration, participating in mimetic complexes of Bombus. Melea is the subgenus of Anthophora whose nest burrows, commonly agregated, have downard entrance chimneys of hardened mud projecting from hard-clay nesting banks."(2)
Works Cited
1.Ascher J.S., Pickering J. (2024) Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)
2.The Bees of the World, 2nd edition
Charles D. Michener. 2007. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Contributed by Ted Kropiewnicki on 22 April, 2008 - 11:16pm
Additional contributions by Graham M, Vox Sciurorum, v belov
Last updated 31 July, 2014 - 8:36pm

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