Melittinae is a small
melittid subfamily, with some 60 species in four genera, restricted to
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
and the northern temperate zone. They are typically small to moderate-sized bees, which often have shaggy
scopae, and are commonly
oligolectic
The term oligolecty is used in pollination ecology to refer to bees that exhibit a narrow, specialized preference for pollen sources, typically to a single family or genus of flowering plants. The preference may occasionally extend broadly to mult ...
; several species further specialize on floral oils as larval food rather than pollen, including ''
Rediviva emdeorum'', a highly unusual species in which the forelegs are longer than the entire body, and used to sponge up the floral oil at the end of elongated corolla spurs of the host plant, ''
Diascia''.
The Melittinae are known from a fossil of ''Palaeomacropis eocenicus'' in the
Early Eocene of Oise, France.
References
External links
Online guides to eastern North American MelittidaeBugguide.netMichez, Patini, Danforth. Phylogeny of the Bee Family Melittidae
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21447496