Megachilidae

Megachilidae is a cosmopolitan family of mostly solitary bees. Characteristic traits of this family include the restriction of the pollen-carrying scopa to the entire ventral surface of the abdomen and their typically elongated labra. Megachilid genera are most commonly known as mason bees and leafcutter bees, reflecting the materials from which they build their nest cells ; a few collect plant or animal hairs and fibers, and are called carder bees, while others use plant resins in nest construction and are correspondingly called resin bees. All species feed on nectar and pollen, but a few are kleptoparasites, feeding on pollen collected by other megachilid bees. Parasitic species do not possess scopae. A megachilid bee collects pollen by rapidly tapping its abdomen against the floral reproductive structures, packing the pollen into its scope.

Megachilidae

Bruce Marlin · CC BY-SA 2.5 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
mason beePBDB
Sits inside
AnthophilaPBDB
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Arthropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Insecta

Time the record covers

At least 59 million years on record.

The record covers at least 59.24 Mya to 210 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 61.66 Mya to 14 ka.

Paleocene — about 1 of 80 occurrencesPaleoceneEocene — about 64 of 80 occurrencesEoceneOligocene — about 4 of 80 occurrencesOligoceneMiocene — about 10 of 80 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 0 of 80 occurrencesPleistocene — about 1 of 80 occurrences63–61 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences61–59 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences57–55 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences55–52 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences52–50 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences50–48 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences48–46 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences46–44 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences44–42 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences42–40 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences38–36 Mya — about 31 occurrences36–34 Mya — about 29 occurrences29–27 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences27–25 Mya — about 2 occurrences25–23 Mya — about 2 occurrences23–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–19 Mya — about 1 occurrence19–17 Mya — about 2 occurrences17–15 Mya — about 1 occurrence15–13 Mya — about 1 occurrence13–10 Mya — about 4 occurrences2.1–0 Mya — about 1 occurrence59.24 Mya210 ka63 Mya0 Mya

80 occurrences of Megachilidae on record, most of them in the Eocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

80 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

10 formations

Florissant — 38.92°N, 105.28°WUpper Freshwater-Molasse — 47.67°N, 8.93°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.75°N, 7.26°ERott — 50.59°N, 7.24°EShanwang — 36.55°N, 118.71°EMenat — 46.10°N, 2.90°ELatah — 46.53°N, 116.79°WArgiles d'lignite du Soissonnais — 49.33°N, 2.66°EEifel — 50.11°N, 6.82°EMessel — 49.93°N, 8.75°EBouldnor — 50.74°N, 1.36°W

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The named rock units Megachilidae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 51 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Megachilidae and its relatives

Eocene

Where Megachilidae and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.

Found in the same rock

4,099 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 40 sites for Megachilidae, and this reads all of them. Of that, one read hit the database's own return limit, so every count below is a floor rather than a total. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

35 references

Each of the 80 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 23 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Megachilidae

Credit
Bruce Marlin
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.5
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itAnthophila through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Latreille 1802