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

Tribe Eucerini - Longhorn Bees

Unknown bee - Melissodes Two-spotted Long-horned Bee (Melissodes bimaculata) - Melissodes bimaculatus Melissodes from Mansfield - Melissodes - male Unknown bee - Eucera hamata - male - female Melissodes sp? - Melissodes - female Second Longhorn Bee with metallic looking bands on abdomen and red veins on wings - Melissodes Melissodes coreopsis - female - Melissodes coreopsis - female Melissodes? - Melissodes paroselae
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.