Santos, L. M.;Melo, G. A. R.
Megalopta
Sign in to saveMegalopta is a widespread neotropical genus of bees in the tribe Augochlorini in family Halictidae, known as the sweat bees. They are the largest of the five nocturnal genera in Augochlorini. Most have pale integumentary pigmentation, and all have large ocelli, most likely a feature of their nocturnal behavior. They live in tropical Central America and the entirety of South America. The subgenus Noctoraptor is cleptoparasitic. They are not known from the fossil record.
Species
Broad-cheeked Nocturnal-Sweat bee
GENUS
- KingdomAnimalia
- PhylumArthropoda
- ClassInsecta
- OrderHymenoptera
- FamilyHalictidae
via GBIF
Museum specimens
- Specimen records
- 703
- With media
- 95
- Family
- Halictidae
- Collections
- MZFC-FC-UNAM, CEDESU-UAC, IFIT-CP, ECOSUR
- Recorded in
- Mexico
~12 min read
Encyclopedic overview
10 sectionsContents
- General description
- Nocturnal behavior and vision
- Nesting and the female hierarchy
- Gynandromorphy
- Interactions with other species
- Cleptoparasitism
- Species and subgenera
- List of species
- Species groups
- References
Megalopta is a widespread neotropical genus of bees in the tribe Augochlorini in family Halictidae, known as the sweat bees. They are the largest of the five nocturnal genera in Augochlorini. Most have pale integumentary pigmentation, and all have large ocelli, most likely a feature of their nocturnal behavior. They live in tropical Central America and the entirety of South America. The subgenus Noctoraptor is cleptoparasitic. They are not known from the fossil record.
Megalopta was first described by Frederick Smith in 1853. The type species is Megalopta idalia, now known as Megalopta amoena. Most studies done on Megalopta are focused on M. genalis.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Megalopta” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.