Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Clickable Guide

Interactive image map to choose major taxa Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

Upcoming Events

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27


Subtribe Perditina - Fairy and Goblin Bees

Representative Images

Perdita? - Perdita Native Bee - Macrotera Perdita sp. - Perdita Perdita albipennis? - Perdita albipennis Bee 5-6mm, Macrotera? - Macrotera Macrotera sp. - Perdita Perdita from Mojave National Preserve: perhaps P. dicksoni? - Perdita - female Unknown Bee - Macrotera

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 Andrenidae (Miner, Fairy, Allied Panurgine, and Oxaeine Bees)
Subfamily Panurginae (Panurgine Bees)
Tribe Panurgini (Fairy Bees and Allies)
Subtribe Perditina (Fairy and Goblin Bees)

Other Common Names

Perditine bees

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Usually classified as a tribe but has been reduced to subtribal status within Panurgini in some recent classifications. Macrotera was until recently included in Perdita.

Numbers

2 genera, with >550 spp. in our area and ~670 spp. total (all but ~30 spp. are in Perdita)(1)

Range

nearctic; Perdita is transcontinental and ranges well into Canada, Macrotera is western and only goes as far north as ND(1)

Print References

Danforth, B. N. 1996. Phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of the Perdita subgenera Macrotera, Macroteropsis, Macroterella and Cockerellula (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae). University of Kansas Science Bulletin 55: 635-692.