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4 days ago · A bee (superfamily Apoidea) is any of more than 20,000 species of insects in the suborder Apocrita (order Hymenoptera), which includes the familiar honeybee (Apis) and bumblebee (Bombus and Psithyrus) as well as thousands of more wasplike and flylike bees.
- Honeybee
All honeybees are eusocial insects and live together in...
- Leaf-Cutter Bee
leaf-cutter bee, (family Megachilidae), any of a group of...
- Euglossine Bee
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- Mining Bee
mining bee, (family Andrenidae), any of a group of bees...
- Honeybee
Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea. They are currently considered a clade, called Anthophila. [1]
What are the different bee families? How many are there, how do scientists decide how to group bees together, and which bee belongs in each family? Firstly, all bees belong to the insect or Super-family 'Apoidea'. Apoidea also includes 'sphecoid wasps', from which bees are descended.
The superfamily Apoidea is a major group within the Hymenoptera, which includes two traditionally recognized lineages, the "sphecoid" wasps, and the bees.
- Apidae
- Halictidae
- Megachilidae
- Andrenidae
- Colletidae
- Melittidae
- Stenotritidae
The largest bee family is the Apidae which is made up of over 5,700 species. They live in colonies that include a queen and worker bees. The family Apidae is believed to date back as far back as 115 million years ago. The oldest known fossilized bee is from this family. Some of the members of the family Apidae include 300 varieties of bumblebee, al...
Bees from the Halictidae are small ground nesters that have a fascinating metallic sheen. It may be up to 96 million years old and contains almost 4,500 species, making it the second largest family. They’re collectively referred to as sweat bees which comes from their tendency to get salt by licking sweat off people. The Halictidae family range fro...
The Megachilidae family are solitary bees that can quickly be identified by their oversized head and mandible. There are about 4,000 species that make up 15-20% of the world’s bee population. In North America, around 630 species have been documented, including the Anthidium, Megachile, Osmia, and Chalicodoma. The family Megachilidae members can be ...
The family Andrenidae are known as mining bees or digger bees and have around 3,000 species. They are solitary bees that are usually found in dry, temperate climates. Andrenidae are small to average-sized ground-nesting insects that are most active early evening. They don’t enjoy hot weather and don’t have accurate night vision. Andrenid bees mostl...
The Colletidae family has around 2,600 species that are solitary bees, living on their own or occasionally as part of a collective hive. Found mostly in Australia and South America, colletids are collectively known as plasterer bees or polyester bees. Their hives are smooth, thanks to a secretion that the bees produce from their mouth. Unlike most ...
Melittidae has about 200 species and is only found in the northern temperate zone and Africa. They’re small to moderate in size and live a solitary life, nesting on the ground. Melittid bees have evolved to live on a small group of plants that are closely related. The Macropis nuda is a part of this family that only collects oil from yellow loosest...
The smallest bee family is the ground-nesting Stenotritidae which has just 21 species. They are fast-flying bees with large bodies that are covered in dense hair. Stenotritidae are only found in Australia and are closely related to the Colletidae family. Read more about the Stenotritidae bee familyhere.
These insights help piece together the story of bees in the past and present. Learn more about entomologists and the research specimens that they study below. There are seven families of bees. Each family has its own set of shared traits and a common evolutionary history.
Bee is any member of a group of about 20,000 known species of winged insects of the superfamily Apoidea of the order Hymenoptera, an order that includes the closely related ants and wasps.
