Meganomiidae Information & Meganomiidae Links at HealthHaven.com

Meganomiidae
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia;
Phylum:	Arthropoda;
Class:	Insecta;
Order:	Hymenoptera;
Suborder:	Apocrita;
Superfamily:	Apoidea;
Family:	Meganomiidae;
Genera
	Ceratomonia; Meganomia; Pseudophilanthus; Uromonia

The family Meganomiidae is a very small bee family, with 10 species in 4 genera, found primarily in Africa, primarily in xeric habitats, with the distributional limits in Yemen and Madagascar. Historically, they have been considered a subfamily within the family Melittidae, but recent molecular studies indicate that Meganomiids are their sister taxon.^[1].

They are rather different in appearance from the other groups of past/present Melittids, being large bees (10-22 mm), mostly black with strong yellow markings, resembling anthidiine megachilids.

[edit] References

^ Danforth, B.N., Sipes, S., Fang, J., Brady, S.G. (2006) The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 15118-15123.

C. D. Michener (2000) The Bees of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press.

This Hymenoptera-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[0] Danforth, B.N., Sipes, S., Fang, J., Brady, S.G. (2006) The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 15118-15123.

[1]