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The superfamily
Apoidea is a major group within the
Hymenoptera Hymenoptera is one of the largest orders of insects, comprising the sawflies, wasps, bees, and ants. The name refers to the heavy wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek ὑμήν : membrane and πτερόν : wing...
, which includes two traditionally-recognized lineages, the "
sphecoidSphecidae is a cosmopolitan family of wasps that include digger wasps, mud daubers and other familiar types that all fall under the category of thread-waisted wasps...
"
waspThe term wasp is typically defined as any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant. Almost every pest insect species has at least one wasp species that preys upon it or parasitizes it, making wasps critically important in natural control of their numbers,...
s, and the
beeBees 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...
s, who appear to be their descendants.
Nomenclature
Bees appear in recent classifications to be a specialized lineage of
crabronidCrabronidae is a large family of wasps, that includes nearly all of the species formerly comprising the now-defunct superfamily Sphecoidea. It collectively includes well over 200 genera, containing well over 9000 species. Crabronids were originally a part of Sphecidae, but the latter name is now...
wasps that switched to the use of
pollenPollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...
and nectar as
larvaA larva is a young form of animal with indirect development, going through or undergoing metamorphosis ....
l food, rather than
insectInsects are arthropods, having a hard exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet and include more than a million species that are already described. Insects represent more than half of all...
prey; this presumably makes Crabronidae a paraphyletic group. Accordingly, bees and sphecoids are now all grouped together in a single superfamily, and the older available name is "Apoidea" rather than "Sphecoidea" (which, like
SpheciformesThe Spheciformes is a paraphyletic assemblage of insect families which collectively comprise the "sphecoid wasps"; these are all the members of the superfamily Apoidea which are not bees, and in older classifications were called the "Sphecoidea"...
, has been used in the past, but also defined a paraphyletic group and has been abandoned).
As the bees themselves (not including their wasp ancestors) are still considered a monophyletic group, it is still convenient to use a grouping between superfamily and family to unify all bees. A few recent classifications have addressed this problem by lumping all bee families together into a single large family
ApidaeThe Apidae are a large family of bees, comprising the common honey bees, stingless bees , carpenter bees, orchid bees, cuckoo bees, bumblebees, and various other less well-known groups...
, though this has not met with widespread acceptance. The alternative classification in more common use is to unite all bees under the name
AnthophilaBees 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...
(Engel, 2005), which is equivalent to the obsolete name Apiformes (which meant
bee-like forms in
LatinLatin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Roman conquest, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe...
).
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