Bees & Sphecoid Wasps

The 70+ taxa listed below all belong to the Superfamily Apoidea, which encompasses two groups that are traditionally called Bees and Sphecoid Wasps. Worldwide there are over 28,500 taxa within this group of Hymenopterans, most of which are Bees (Anthophila).  Anthophila is a unique lineage arising from within the Crabronid Wasps that shifted their larval food from insects to pollen and nectar.  While much has been learned about these fascinating invertebrates, there is still much more to discover.  Like many of the insect groups, there are countless undiscovered or undescribed species hovering around us.  This lack of basic taxonomic information results in many specimens that cannot be identified (even by experts) beyond the family or genus level.  On the list below, these are indicated by Genus sp. or in some cases they will defined as being nearest to (or most similar to) another known taxon, eg. Genus nr.  And in some cases, the specimen has been noted as being a new species (Genus nova sp.), awaiting further study and description.

All taxa on this list are represented by a specimen; most are housed in the GMDRC museum collection or at the UC Riverside Entomology Museum. Each scientific name is linked to a profile page on the Iowa State University BugGuide. To learn more about the species, click on the numbers to the right of the scientific name; this will take you to one of two websites: 1) the Encyclopedia of Life website may have range maps and photos of live or pinned specimens; or 2) this will take you to the iNaturalist taxon page, which may show locations of observations, photos, and other natural history details. This list can be downloaded as a pdf (coming soon!).