The

bee 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 monophyly, monophyletic lineage within the ...

subfamily Andreninae is a nearly cosmopolitan lineage, with most of its diversity in one genus, ''

Andrena ''Andrena'' is a genus of bees in the family Andrenidae. With over 1,500 species, it is one of the largest genera of animals. It is a strongly monophyletic group that is difficult to split into more manageable divisions; currently, ''Andrena'' i ...

'', which contains over 1500 species. The remaining four genera in the subfamily only contain a total of 9 species. Females of three of the genera (''

Ancylandrena ''Ancylandrena'' is a genus of mining bees in the family Andrenidae. There are about five described species in ''Ancylandrena''. Species These five species belong to the genus ''Ancylandrena'': * ''Ancylandrena atoposoma'' (Cockerell, 1934) * ' ...

'', ''

'', and '' Megandrena'') have broad, velvety depressions called "facial foveae" on the face between the eyes and the antennae; in all other members of the family, the foveae are much smaller, typically reduced to grooves or pits at the upper margin of the eyes. ''Ancylandrena'' and ''Megandrena'' occur only in the desert regions of southwestern

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is d ...

, and

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

), while ''Andrena'' is nearly worldwide. ''

Euherbstia ''Euherbstia'' is a genus of mining bees in the family Andrenidae. The only species in this genus is ''Euherbstia excellens'', which is endemic to Chile. These bees have been observed to make nests in hard, compact soil, using cracks to enter t ...

'' and '' Orphana'' are rare bees restricted to desert regions of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. Unlike the subfamily

Panurginae The bee subfamily Panurginae is a diverse lineage of 33 genera in 7 tribes. They are particularly diverse in the New World, though scarce in the tropics, and in the Old World they can be found primarily in the Palaearctic and Africa, but absent f ...

, none of the species of Andreninae have yellow markings anywhere other than on the face; those markings, when present, are usually found only in males.

Genera

* ''

'' * ''

'' * '' Megandrena'' * '' Orphana''

References

* C. D. Michener (2007) ''The Bees of the World'', 2nd Edition, Johns Hopkins University Press. Hymenoptera subfamilies {{Andreninae-stub