Corbiculata

Belongs within: Apidae.
Contains: Electrapini, Apis, Bombini, Meliponini.

The Corbiculata are a clade of bees characterised by modification of the hind tibia of females into a corbicula (with a broad hairless patch fringed by long curved hairs) for carrying pollen. Many members of the clade are eusocial (Engel 2001).

Corbiculates include the orchid bees of the Euglossini, a Neotropical group in which the proboscis reaches beyond the base of the metasoma and the body is usually at least partially metallic. The Melikertini are an extinct group known from Baltic amber that resemble the stingless bees of the Meliponini in habitus but differ in retaining a sting as well as their complete wing venation, toothed claws and single metatibial spur (Engel 2001).

Characters (from Engel 2001): Mandibular pollex expanded. Metatibia modified into corbicula; metabasitibial plate absent; inner apical margin of metatibia with rastellum; auricle frequently present. Wings uniformly setose. Prepygidial fimbria and pygidial plate absent.

<==Corbiculata [Apes]
    |  i. s.: Electrobombus Engel 2001 [Electrobombini]E01
    |           `--*E. samlandensis Engel 2001E01
    |         ElectrapiniE01
    |--+--ApisPK17
    |  `--+--BombiniPK17
    |     `--+--MeliponiniCSD10
    |        `--MelikertiniE01
    |             |--Melissites Engel 2001E01
    |             |    `--*M. trigona Engel 2001E01
    |             |--Roussyana Manning 1960 [=Russyana (l. c.)]E01
    |             |    `--*R. palmnickenensis (Roussy 1937) (see below for synonymy)E01
    |             |--Melikertes Engel 1998E01
    |             |    |--*M. stilbonotus (Engel 1998) [=Electrapis (Melikertes) stilbonota]E01
    |             |    |--M. clypeatus Engel 2001E01
    |             |    `--M. proavus (Menge 1856) (see below for synonymy)E01
    |             `--Succinapis Engel 2001E01
    |                  |--S. goeleti Engel 2001E01
    |                  `--+--*S. proboscidea Engel 2001E01
    |                     `--S. micheneri Engel 2001E01
    `--Euglossini [Euglossae, Euglossinae]CSD10
         |--EufrieseaCSD10 [incl. Paleoeuglossa Poinar 1998E01]
         |    |--E. melissiflora (Poinar 1998) [=*Paleoeuglossa melissiflora]E01
         |    |--E. mexicanaPK17
         |    |--E. pulchra (Smith 1854)CSD10
         |    `--E. surinamensis (Linnaeus 1758)CSD10
         `--+--Eulaema meriana (Olivier 1789)CSD10
            `--+--Aglae caerulea Lepeletier & Audinet-Serville 1825CSD10
               `--+--Exaerete frontalis (Guérin-Méneville 1845)CSD10
                  `--Euglossa Latreille 1802PK17, L02a
                       |--E. cordata (Linnaeus 1758)L02b, L58 [=Apis cordataL02b, Bombus (Euglossa) cordataG20]
                       |--E. dentataR26
                       |--E. dilemmaPK17
                       |--E. dimidiataR26
                       |--E. gulosaL02b [=Andrena gulosaL02a, Apis gulosaL02b]
                       |--E. imperialis Cockerell 1922CSD10
                       |--E. moreneiCSD10
                       `--E. piliventris Guérin-Méneville 1845CSD10

Melikertes proavus (Menge 1856) [=Apis proava, Electrapis (Melikertes) proava, E. (Roussyana) proava, Trigona (R.) proava]^E01

*Roussyana palmnickenensis (Roussy 1937) [=Apis palmnickenensis, Electrapis (Roussyana) palmnickenensis, Trigona (R.) palmnickenensis, Roussyana palmuickenensis (l. c.); incl. Electrapis minuta Kelner-Pillault 1970]^E01

*Type species of generic name indicated

References

[CSD10] Cardinal, S., J. Straka & B. N. Danforth. 2010. Comprehensive phylogeny of apid bees reveals the evolutionary origins and antiquity of cleptoparasitism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 107 (37): 16207–16211.

[E01] Engel, M. S. 2001. A monograph of the Baltic amber bees and evolution of the Apoidea (Hymenoptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 259: 1–192.

[G20] Goldfuss, G. A. 1820. Handbuch der Naturgeschichte vol. 3. Handbuch der Zoologie pt 1. Johann Leonhard Schrag: Nürnberg.

[L02a] Latreille, P. A. 1802a. Histoire Naturelle des Fourmis, et recueil de mémoires et d’observations sur les abeilles, les araignées, les faucheurs, et autres insectes. Théophile Barrois père: Paris.

[L02b] Latreille, P. A. 1802b. Histoire Naturelle, générale et particulière des crustacés et des insectes vol. 3. Familles naturelles des genres. F. Dufart: Paris.

[L58] Linnaeus, C. 1758. Systema Naturae per Regna Tria Naturae, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis. Tomus I. Editio decima, reformata. Laurentii Salvii: Holmiae.

[PK17] Peters, R. S., L. Krogmann, C. Mayer, A. Donath, S. Gunkel, K. Meusemann, A. Kozlov, L. Podsiadlowski, M. Petersen, R. Lanfear, P. A. Diez, J. Heraty, K. M. Kjer, S. Klopfstein, R. Meier, C. Polidori, T. Schmitt, S. Liu, X. Zhou, T. Wappler, J. Rust, B. Misof & O. Niehuis. 2017. Evolutionary history of the Hymenoptera. Current Biology 27 (7): 1013–1018.

[R26] Risso, A. 1826. Histoire naturelle des principales productions de l’Europe méridionale et particulièrement de celles des environs de Nice et des Alpes maritimes vol. 5. F.-G. Levrault: Paris.