Andreninae
Encyclopedia
The bee
Bee
Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea, presently classified by the unranked taxon name Anthophila...

 subfamily Andreninae is a nearly cosmopolitan lineage, with most of its diversity in one genus, Andrena
Andrena
Andrena is the largest genus in the family Andrenidae, and is nearly worldwide in distribution, with the notable exceptions of Oceania and South America. With over 1,300 species, it is one of the largest of all bee genera...

, which contains over 1300 species. The remaining four genera in the subfamily only contain a total of 9 species.

Females of three of the genera (Ancylandrena, Andrena
Andrena
Andrena is the largest genus in the family Andrenidae, and is nearly worldwide in distribution, with the notable exceptions of Oceania and South America. With over 1,300 species, it is one of the largest of all bee genera...

, and Megandrena) have broad, velvety depressions called "facial foveae" on the face between the eyes and the antennae; in all other members of the family, the foveae are much smaller, typically reduced to grooves or pits at the upper margin of the eyes. Ancylandrena and Megandrena occur only in the desert regions of southwestern North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 (Nevada
Nevada
Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, Sonora
Sonora
Sonora officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 72 municipalities; the capital city is Hermosillo....

, and Baja California
Baja California
Baja California officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is both the northernmost and westernmost state of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1953, the area was known as the North...

), while Andrena is nearly worldwide. Euherbstia and Orphana are rare bees restricted to desert regions of Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

.

Unlike the subfamily Panurginae
Panurginae
The bee subfamily Panurginae is a diverse lineage of 33 genera in 7 tribes. They are particularly diverse in the New World, though scarce in the tropics, and in the Old World they can be found primarily in the Palaearctic and Africa, but absent from Australia and tropical Asia...

, none of the species of Andreninae have yellow markings anywhere other than on the face; those markings, when present, are usually found only in males.
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