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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) » Longhorn Bees (Eucerini)

Tribe Eucerini - Longhorn Bees

Classification · Other Common Names · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Identification · Range · Life Cycle · Print References · Works Cited

Unknown Black Apidae? - Melissodes bimaculatus - female

Longhorn bee (looks different than the ones I usually see) - Svastra - male

Another BB on Circium vulgare, same place & time - Melissodes - female

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 Eucerini (Longhorn Bees)

Other Common Names

Long-horned Bees

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

see (1)(2)

Explanation of Names

Eucerini Latreille 1802

see Eucera

Numbers

212 spp. in 14 genera in our area, ~750 spp. in 36 genera worldwide(3)

Identification

Hairy bees, typically with pale hair bands on the metasoma. Males typically have very long antennae. According to the site linked below, "two distinguishing characteristics are the following: the Eucerini have long paraglossae [lobes at the outer edges of the tip of the lower mouthparts] that reach the base of the labial palpus. They also have parocular carina [ridges on the outside portion of the eye area].

Key to genera in (4)

clypeus protruding

, no stiff hairs beside the margin of the inner eye; top of the head flattish or slightly concave, eyes look bulging (unlike in Exomalopsini)(5)

Range

holarctic and neotropical + ~40 Afrotropical spp. and just a couple in SE Asia(3)

Life Cycle

nests are vertical burrows in flat ground

Print References

(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)

Works Cited

1.	Partitioned gene-tree analyses and gene-based topology testing help resolve incongruence in a phylogenomic study... Freitas F.V., Branstetter M.G., Griswold T., Almeida E.A.B. 2021. Mol. Biol. Evol. 38: 1090–1100.

2.	UCE phylogenomics, biogeography, and classification of long-horned bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Eucerini)... Freitas FV, Branstetter MG, Franceschini-Santos VH, Dorchin A, Wright KW, López-Uribe MM, Griswold T, Silveira FA, Almeida EAB. 2023. Insect Syst. Div. 7(4): 1–21.

3.	Ascher J.S., Pickering J. (2017) Discover Life bee species guide and world checklist (Hymenoptera: Apoidea: Anthophila)

4.	The genera of bees of the tribe Eucerini in North and Central America (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) W. E. LaBerge. 1957. American Museum Novitates, No. 1837.

5.	The Bees in Your Backyard: A Guide to North America's Bees. Joseph S. Wilson & Olivia J. Messinger Carril. 2015. Princeton University Press.

6.	A revision of the bees of the genus Melissodes in North and Central America. Part I (Hymenoptera, Apidae) W.E. LaBerge. 1956. U. Kans. Sci. Bull. 37 (II): 911-1194.

7.	A revision of the bees of the genus Melissodes in North and Central America. Part II (Hymenoptera, Apidae) W.E. LaBerge. 1956. U. Kans. Sci. Bull. 38 (I): 533-578.

8.	A revision of the bees of the genus Melissodes in North and Central America. Part III (Hymenoptera, Apidae) W.E. LaBerge. 1961. U. Kans. Sci. Bull. 42: 283-663.

9.	Revision of the Bees of the Genus Tetraloniella in the New World (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Wallace E. LaBerge. 2001. Illinois Natural History Survey Bulletin 36: 63-162.

10.	Notes on the North and Central American bees of the genus Svastra Holmberg (Hymenoptera: Apidae) LaBerge W.E. 1958. J. Kans. Ent. Soc. 31: 266‒273.

11.	A contribution to the systematics of North American species of Synhalonia (Hymenoptera, Apoidea) Timberlake P.H. 1969. UC Pub. Entomol. 57: 1‒76.

Contributed by Beatriz Moisset on 17 October, 2004 - 3:23pm
Additional contributions by Hannah Nendick-Mason, Joel Kits, Chuck Entz, John S. Ascher, Aaron Schusteff, v belov, Edward Ruden, Marci Hess, PaleoJon
Last updated 18 October, 2023 - 3:40pm

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