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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
 

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Genus Triepeolus

Representative Images

Triepeolus (grandis?) - Triepeolus Q Bee 9, ID Please - Triepeolus Q Bee 9,Cuckoo ? ID Please - Triepeolus - female UID bee - Triepeolus Need help identifying Bee! - Triepeolus lunatus - male Triepeolus? - Triepeolus - female Triepeolus Triepeolus? - Triepeolus - male

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 Nomadinae (Cuckoo Bees)
Tribe Epeolini
Genus Triepeolus

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Includes Doeringiella sensu Michener (2000)
reviewed (partly) in (1)

Numbers

108 spp. in our area, 147 spp. worldwide/total(2)

Range

holarctic + neotropical (map)(2)

Food

parasitic on Melissodes and possibly some of the other related eucerines

Remarks

Differences in the shape of the pygidial plate are used for generic ID of males (shorter and broadly rounded in Epeolus; narrower and with sinuate margins in Triepeolus). This can be difficult to see even in pinned specimens, so many males were described in the wrong genus, even by Cockerell and Mitchell! In females the obvious difference is the extent and configuration of a hair patch called the pseudopygidial area (shorter and more transverse in Epeolus). These hairs are often appressed and silvery or golden.

Internet References

Taxon page(2)

Works Cited

1.A review of the cleptoparasitic bee genus Triepeolus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Part I
Rightmyer M.G. 2008. Zootaxa 1710.
2.Ascher J.S., Pickering J. (2024) Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)
Contributed by Eric R. Eaton on 9 November, 2005 - 4:49pm
Additional contributions by Beatriz Moisset, Hartmut Wisch, John S. Ascher, v belov
Last updated 31 July, 2021 - 6:49pm

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