Meganomiinae
{{Short description|Subfamily of bees}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Meganomia gigas 01.jpg
| image_caption = Meganomia gigas
| display_parents = 2
| taxon = Meganomiinae
| authority =
| subdivision_ranks = Genera
| subdivision =
}}
Meganomiinae is a subfamily of melittid bees, with 10 species in four genera, found only in Africa, primarily in xeric habitats, with the distributional limits in Yemen and Madagascar.{{cite journal| title=Monographic revision of the melittid bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Melittidae sensu lato)|author=Michez, Denis |journal=Proceedings of the Netherlands Entomological Society Meeting|volume=19 |year=2008|pages=32 | url=http://zoologie.umh.ac.be/hymenoptera/biblio/P6_Michez_2008_Wageningen_Melittid_bees.pdf}} They are rather different in appearance from the other groups of past/present melittids, being large bees (10–22 mm), mostly black with strong yellow markings, resembling anthidiine megachilids. Males of this subfamily are known to have hidden sterna.{{cite journal|author=Michez, D.|author2=Eardley, C.D.|author3=Timmermann, K.|author4=Danforth, B.N. |year=2010|title=Unexpected polylecty in the bee genus Meganomia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea; Melittidae)|journal=Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society|volume=83|issue=3|pages=222–|doi=10.2317/JKES0911.20.1|s2cid=41340726}}
Taxonomy
Initial molecular work suggested that the family Melittidae was paraphyletic, and that its subfamilies (including Meganomiinae) should therefore be elevated to family status.{{cite journal|author=Danforth, B.N.|author2=Sipes, S.|author3=Fang, J.|author4=Brady, S.G. |year=2006|title=The history of early bee diversification based on five genes plus morphology|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences| volume=103|issue=41|pages=15118–15123|doi=10.1073/pnas.0604033103|pmid=17015826|pmc=1586180|bibcode=2006PNAS..10315118D|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|journal=Current Biology |volume=17| issue= 5|title=Bees-a primer|author=Danforth, Bryan|pages=156–161|url=http://www.danforthlab.entomology.cornell.edu/files/all/danforth2007.pdf|doi=10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.025|pmid=17339010|year=2007|doi-access=free}} However, these studies included very few melittids, due to their rarity. A 2013 investigation included a greater number of melittid bees and concluded that the family was probably monophyletic, thus supporting Meganomiinae as a subfamily of Melittidae.{{cite journal|last1=Hedtke|first1=Shannon H.|title=The bee tree of life: a supermatrix approach to apoid phylogeny and biogeography|journal=BMC Evolutionary Biology|date=2013|volume=13|issue=138|pages=138|doi=10.1186/1471-2148-13-138|pmid=23822725|pmc=3706286 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2013BMCEE..13..138H }}
References
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