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The superfamily Apoidea is a major group within the Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera is one of the larger order s of insects, comprising the sawfly, wasps, bees, and ants. The name refers to the membranous wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek language wikt:???? : membrane and wikt:pte??? : wing....
, which includes two traditionally-recognized lineages, the "sphecoid
Sphecidae

Sphecidae 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....
" wasp
WAsP

WAsP is a PC program for predicting wind climates, wind resources, and power productions from wind turbines and wind farms. The predictions are based on wind data measured at stations in the same region....
s, and the bee
Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly 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 crabronid
Crabronidae

Crabronidae 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....
 wasps that switched to the use of pollen
Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
 and nectar as larva
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
l food, rather than insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 prey; this presumably makes Crabronidae a paraphyletic group.






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Encyclopedia


The superfamily Apoidea is a major group within the Hymenoptera
Hymenoptera

Hymenoptera is one of the larger order s of insects, comprising the sawfly, wasps, bees, and ants. The name refers to the membranous wings of the insects, and is derived from the Ancient Greek language wikt:???? : membrane and wikt:pte??? : wing....
, which includes two traditionally-recognized lineages, the "sphecoid
Sphecidae

Sphecidae 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....
" wasp
WAsP

WAsP is a PC program for predicting wind climates, wind resources, and power productions from wind turbines and wind farms. The predictions are based on wind data measured at stations in the same region....
s, and the bee
Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly 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 crabronid
Crabronidae

Crabronidae 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....
 wasps that switched to the use of pollen
Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder consisting of Gametophyte , which produce the male gametes of spermatophyta. A hard coat covering the pollen grain protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement between the stamens of the flower to the pistil of the next flower....
 and nectar as larva
Larva

A larva is a young form of animal with indirect developmental biology, going through or undergoing metamorphosis .The larva can look completely different from the adult form, for example, a caterpillar differs from a butterfly....
l food, rather than insect
Insect

Insects are the biggest class of arthropods and the only ones with wings. They are the most diverse group of animals on the planet. They are most diverse at the equator and their diversity declines toward the poles....
 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 Spheciformes
Spheciformes

The Spheciformes is a paraphyletic assemblage of insect family 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 Apidae
Apidae

The Apidae are a large family of bees, comprising the common honey bees, stingless bees , carpenter bees, euglossini, nomadinae, 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 Anthophila
Bee

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants. Bees are a monophyly 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 Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
).

External links

  • Images, identification guides, and maps of Apoidea.
  • Popular introduction to the Hymenoptera Apoidea.
  • Flower visiting bees in Europe pdf. In Italian but excellent table with Latin names.