Subfamily Apinae - Honey, Bumble, Longhorn, Orchid, and Digger Bees

450 spp. in 34 genera of 12 tribes in our area, >3,500 spp. in ~160 genera of 20 tribes worldwide(1)

worldwide(1)

This subfamily includes the corbiculate Apidae, i.e. Apidae sensu stricto including the former family Anthophoridae.

Recent molecular phylogenetic studies report paraphyly of Apinae with respect to both Xylocopinae and Nomadinae. However, these results are questionable, in part because position of genera such as the Chilean Manuelia (Xylocopinae) is unstable. Various other tribes now included in Apinae, such as Melectini, Rhathymini, Ericrocidini, Osirini, and Protepeolini, have been associated in the past with Nomadinae in the past, but evidence from life history studies by Rozen support multiple independent origins of these. Recent molecular phylogenies proposing a single origin of cleptoparasitism for these apine cleptoparasites have strong clade support only by measures such as Bayesian PP that are well known to be inflated, and support is lacking by more conservative measures such as the parsimony jackknife.