Bee Families

Hi Ken,

Now I have nearly finished with moths, lol, I will be tackling the bees, and I have a few of those. I did have many named but lost those when my last computer froze, so I have had to transfer them all into their own file again and now will have to find their names again too so it might take a while.

My problem is going to be which Family to place them in, as it seems many are being clumped into Apidae. I have no other reference than BWARS

http://www.bwars.com/Gallery.htm

and bioimages,

http://www.bioimages.org.uk/HTML/T16392.HTM

Neither come in line with the species I have and the Families we have so I may have to bother you for a while, lol. :) For example, Nomada on bioimages is in the Family Anthophoridae but we have it in Apidae.

My first bee which I do know for sure is the Hairy-footed Flower Bee, Anthophora plumipes and that is in Anthophoridae on bioimages. As that and Nomada are both in Anthophorinae on BWARS, does that mean I should put it in Apidae?

Thanks :) hope this is going to be easier than it looks, lol.

Janet

Janet,
I am already aware of this problem with the bees. There does not yet seem to be a clear-cut answer. Apparently some authorities are placing all the bees in the single family Apidae. For the moment, we are following the system as described in Wihipedia, which combines Anthophoridae and Ctenoplectridae into Apidae, but retains other families as separate bee families: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apidae

That would mean that your Anthophora species would be recorded as a member of Apidae.

Ken

Thanks Ken, that might help me somewhat. If I get stuck I will shout, lol, trying to read all of that turns the brain to spaghetti.

Janet