Tapinotaspidini

The 'Tapinotaspidini' are a tribe of apid bees. They belong to the order Hymenoptera and the family Apidae. The Tapinotaspidini tribe consists of 180 different species. Many species of Apidae are recognised as oil-collecting bees and Tapinotaspidini possess this oil-collecting behaviour. It is maintained that mutualism exists between oil secreting flowers and oil collecting Tapinotaspidini bees. Morphological and molecular phylogenies have found that the trait of oil-collecting is polyphyletic. Tapinotaspidini are solitary bees which collect oil sources from flowers belonging to the families of Malpighiaceae, Solanaceae, Orchidaceae, Calceolariaceae, Iridaceae, Plantaginaceae, Melastomataceae and Krameriaceae. Tapinotaspidini species differ in terms of being generalist and specialist oil-collectors. Selected species exclusively obtain floral oil from one family of flowering plants, whilst many Tapinotaspidini species employ a range of plant families to fulfil their oil-collecting behaviour.

== Geographical origin == Tapinotaspidini bees evolved during the Paleocene within a savanna environment resembling the Cerrado with broad grasslands of South America. The ancestral floral host of Tapinotaspidini is deemed to be the flowering plant family of Malpighiaceae which arose 60 million years ago and is regarded as the oldest oil producing plant. Tapinotaspidini began to occupy forested terrain approximately 30 million years ago. The introduction and interaction with other oil producing plants occurred throughout the Eocene and Miocene eras. This diversification was significant in facilitating an array of habitats for Tapinotaspidini.