The Osirini are a tribe of
cleptoparasitic apid bees, all but one genus exclusively from the
Neotropics
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropics, tropical Ecoregion#Terrestrial, terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperat ...
, and laying their eggs in the nests of bees in the
apid tribe
Tapinotaspidini
The Tapinotaspidini are a tribe of apid bees.
Genera
*'' Arhysoceble''
*'' Caenonomada''
*'' Chalepogenus''
*'' Monoeca''
*'' Paratetrapedia''
*'' Tapinotaspis''
*'' Tapinotaspoides''
*'' Trigonopedia''
References
* C. D. Michener (2000) ''The ...
; the one exceptional genus is ''
Epeoloides
''Epeoloides'' is a genus of kleptoparasitic bees which lay their eggs in the nests of melittid bees of the genus ''Macropis''.
Consists of two species:
*'' Epeoloides coecutiens'' (
*'' Epeoloides pilosulus'' (Cresson, 1878)
References
...
'', which has one
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 ...
n species and one
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an species, both of which attack the
melittid genus ''
Macropis
''Macropis'' is a genus of bees in the family Melittidae.
Description
''Macropis'' species are of moderate size, not exceeding 15 mm. They have a livery predominantly black; males are characterized by conspicuous yellow markings on the hea ...
''.
All species in this tribe are unique among the
bees in the possession of a tiny
sclerite
A sclerite (Greek , ', meaning "hard") is a hardened body part. In various branches of biology the term is applied to various structures, but not as a rule to vertebrate anatomical features such as bones and teeth. Instead it refers most commonly ...
embedded in the membrane beneath the head, possibly to help guard against being stung in the neck by an angry host bee when invading a nest.
References
*
C. D. Michener (2000) ''The Bees of the World'', Johns Hopkins University Press.
Apinae
Bee tribes
{{Apinae-stub