Apoidea

The superfamily Apoidea is a major group (of over 30 000 species) within the Hymenoptera, which includes two traditionally recognized lineages, the "sphecoid" wasps, and the bees. Molecular phylogeny demonstrates that the bees arose from within the traditional "Crabronidae", so that grouping is paraphyletic, and this has led to a reclassification to produce monophyletic families.^[1]

Apoidea
Apis mellifera, the western honeybee
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Infraorder:	Aculeata
Superfamily:	Apoidea Latreille, 1802
Families
Spheciformes Ammoplanidae Ampulicidae Astatidae Bembicidae Crabronidae Mellinidae Pemphredonidae Philanthidae Psenidae Sphecidae †Angarosphecidae †Paleomelittidae †Temnogynidae Clade Anthophila Andrenidae Apidae Colletidae Halictidae Megachilidae Melittidae Stenotritidae

Diagnostic features

Apoid wasps and bees have several traits in common:^[2]

• The posterior (back) edge of the pronotum (pronotal lobe) is separated from the tegula
• In dorsal view (from above), the pronotum is short and broadly U-shaped;
• In dorsal view, a "propodeal triangle" at the posterior of the mesonotum;
• The hind basitarsus is longer than the other tarsomeres of the hind leg.

Nomenclature

Bees appear in recent classifications to be a specialized lineage of "crabronid" wasps that switched to the use of pollen and nectar as larval food, rather than insect prey; this makes the traditional "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, has been used in the past, but also defined a paraphyletic group and has been abandoned).^{[citation needed]}

As bees (not including their wasp ancestors) are still considered a monophyletic group, they are given a grouping between superfamily and family to unify all bees, Anthophila.^[3]

Phylogeny

Aculeata Chrysidoidea (cuckoo wasps and allies) Vespoidea (potter wasps, paper wasps, and others) Sierolomorphidae (sierolomorphid wasps) Tiphiidae (tiphiid wasps) Thynnoidea (thynnid wasps and others) Pompiloidea (spider wasps, velvet ants, and others) Scolioidea (scoliid wasps) Formicoidea (ants) Apoidea (spheciform wasps and bees)

Phylogenetic position of Apoidea in the Aculeata.[4][5]

This phylogenetic tree is based on Sann et al., 2018, which used phylogenomics to demonstrate that both the bees (Anthophila) and the Sphecidae arose from within the former "Crabronidae," which is therefore paraphyletic, and which they suggested should be split into several families; the former family Heterogynaidae nests in Nyssonini within the Bembicidae, as defined by these authors.^[1] These findings differ in several details^[specify] from studies published by two other sets of authors in 2017, though all three studies demonstrate a paraphyletic "Crabronidae."^[5][6]

Apoidea	Ampulicidae (Cockroach wasps) Astatidae Bembicidae Sphecidae (sensu stricto) Crabronidae (sensu stricto) Mellinidae Pemphredonidae Philanthidae Psenidae Ammoplanidae Anthophila (bees)